On the topic of mash-ups and covers, this is pretty much the greatest existing, um, appropriation of any 90s one-hit Canadian reggae wonder that ever there was. Oh, you can try to argue otherwise... but you would be tragically mistaken.
Anyway, IP and technology issues rear their heads in all kinds of places, including comic book news site comicbookresources.com. It's not just mp3s that people are downloading, it's scanned comic books as well, hence this brief interview with "Super Lawyer" and P2P expert Darren S. Cahr:
"This is the great conundrum of the modern digital age as it applies to copyright law," offers Cahr. "The problem, however, seems to me less an issue of how IP law should be changed, and more an issue of how companies and artists choose to use their copyrights... Are there ways of encouraging 'good' free distribution of certain kinds of products without permitting wholesale copying and distribution of the entire work? Are there ways of pricing in freely downloadable items while 'making up the difference' with other products or services? Too many commentators think about copyright law as a barrier, or an obstacle, instead of thinking about it as an opportunity for creativity."
However, much of the article is the author seeking support for his opinion that online piracy isn't really a problem and is, according to quoted source Eric Flint, in practical effect "no different from that of any existing method by which readers may obtain books for free or at reduced cost: public libraries, friends borrowing and loaning each other books, used book stores, promotional copies, etc."
Speaking of comics, Marvel Comics recently launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited: pony up $5 - $10 a month and read back issues of comics online as much as you want (to the extent of the library currently available). You can't download, however, which has irked fans. Similarly, some Japanese animation licensing companies, complaining of being hit hard by illegal downloading and fansubbing activities, are making their first stabs at putting episodes online for download at a couple bucks per episode instead of $30 for a 4-episode DVD; this has also met with a mixed reception. Also, given the frequency with which fans seem to complain that they can't afford to pay for comics/anime at street prices anyway and the value of anime to many fans is zip, zero, I'm not sure that the rosy assumption that piracy makes up for itself in promotion is necessarily true. (I suppose it could be argued as well that what fans refuse to pay in burnt DVDs full of downloads, they might partially make up for in purchases of less-reproducible tie-in merchandise like statues, plushes, keychains, hats, etc.) But your mileage may vary.
2 comments:
Thanks for the two completely absurd videos. You have broadened my horizons. As a fine example of the generative power of the internet, apparently someone mashed the two songs together. I'm categorically not claiming that this is one of those important contributions mashups make to our culture, and clicking that link is almost certainly a waste of your time, but there it is.
Once again, the internet proves itself to be full of win!
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