"Mash-ups" are an increasingly popular form of artistic expression, created by re-editing existing material and presenting it as a humorous or satirical montage.
Thursday, October 02, 2014
'Mash-ups' now protected under copyright law - but only if funny
"Mash-ups" are an increasingly popular form of artistic expression, created by re-editing existing material and presenting it as a humorous or satirical montage.
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4 comments:
This is such an interesting article that depicts the new copy right laws in the UK. The Copyright, Design and Patterns Act of 1988 which came into force yesterday allows anyone to create mash-up videos as long as they are viewed as "funny" within the court system. Allowing a judge to decide the fate of an individual based on their sense of humor seems a tad troublesome. I love that the UK is allowing individuals to openly express their creativity, but in the case they need to go to court, their fate shouldn't be left in the hands of a judge. We naturally are all interested in different things and have varied senses of humor. A video to one person could be the funniest thing ever, while another person could be deeply offended by the material. Can't wait to see the outcome of this law and its going to have a unique impact on society I think.
I find this very surprising. I have always thought of mashups as just youtube videos. They are are super fun and are really cool to listen to. Personally I think if mass should be protected under copyright law, but the producer needs to do all the necessary work for it. However, if other youtube videos also want to be protected under copyright law I believe that they should also be able to apply. This provides an equal opportunity for everyone to receive copyright. I also think that it shouldn't only be limited to "funny" videos. How funny something is is very subjective so that shouldn't be the determining factor.
While this is definitely a step in the right direction, it takes a few things a bit too drastically. The fact that it's up to the judge to decide if something is funny is one thing, but for mashups to only be allowed for comedic purposes is really upsetting to me. There's plenty of songs or even videos that sample and mashup for more than just comedic reasons. Often times a sample of a song can make a really strong or powerful statement of where our society is today and can help people open up their eyes to what we are mindlessly listening to. I hope they look at this again and refine this act.
This seems like a really strange direction for things to go in, as there is no way to empirically measure how funny something is. This being said, I rather hope that most judges choose to interpret the law as only intending to be a parody, instead of requiring the mash-up to actually be funny. Doesn’t the United States have a law similar to this, where you are allowed to use copyrighted material for purposes of parody? Either way, it is rather important to have a law to this effect in place to allow people more creative freedom.
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