Remix, copyright and SOPA

Today many of my favourite internet sites have gone dark to protest the SOPA legislation being proposed in the US.

As a result there's been less of the usual opportunities to procrastinate and, when a Google Alert brought up hito's bass ling/ guitar riff concept video by curse1hunter1L, I decided to make my own statement about copyright and edit something other than my next park remix video.

Hopefully this bloke will be entertained because I mean no disrespect. Without wishing to appear patronising, he reminds me of when I first got a bass guitar while I was at high school. Which is how I came to choose the moniker Bassling.



All the work I've produced as Bassling has been released under creative commons rather than copyright because copyright is out of control.

To argue that copyright protects artists is bullshit if you look at how it stretches 70 years beyond their death. Copyright protects businesses which make money from the efforts of artists. There are other ways to support these artists without giving money to corporations, like next time you're at a gig buy a t-shirt because they'll get a much bigger percentage of your money. Send them a donation or help raise their profile so that other opportunities will come their way.

Today I also learned that works that were in the public domain have been put back under copyright. The film Metropolis is one example, an incredible work that I considered remixing but choose instead to mix a new soundtrack to accompany the screening I organised for the Leeton Art Deco Festival last year.