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Creating media has never been so easy. The digitisation of media and the convergence
of technology has sparked the explosion of participatory culture and the new media mogul
-- the 'prosumer'.
The transformation from physical and analog formats to digital allows anyone with a phone,
tablet or computer and an Internet connection to produce and distribute their own media.
Media is being produced at an expanding rate with an increasing level of professionalism
and is distributed further and faster than ever before. We all know where this media
goes but where does it come from?
Digital media is easy to make, to share... and to take. Once the digital source is obtained
by sharing, copying or downloading, media is ready to be mashed-up, remixed and republished.
Today's prosumers have access to digital media assets including their own images, audio and
video, commercially published music, tv and films, software, artistic works, intellectual
property and even cultural and social themes.
Because commercially published material is readily available, high quality, has an established
audience and dedicated fans, reusing it is a popular form of publishing. So what does
mashup, remix and re-publishing do?
A mashup takes two or more pieces of media and blends them together, combining elements
of each to produce a new version.
A remix is a re-assembly of media, similar to a mashup, but using a single, similar or
linked source and re-editing or introducing new elements to create a new version.
Republishing is easy - anyone can open a free account on a social sharing website and upload
their work for the world to see.
Often the original medias' popularity ensures an eager audience and if it appeals enough,
it could even become a 'meme' or go 'viral'. But media doesn't replicate by itself -- people
must want to pass it on -- and a new term for this is 'spreadable' media.
People want to produce and consume spreadable media -- but what are the benefits of doing
so, and how does the application of copyright laws affect this?
Copyright assigns legal ownership of a creative work to the creator of that work -- essentially,
it protects the work from being reproduced in any way without the permission of the copyright
owner.
Copyright has evolved over the years from a law to create a list of licenced, or legal
books to 'An Act for the Encouragement of Learning' that would allow works to fall into
the public domain after a short period, to modern laws that are continually revised to
extend the rights of publishers, thereby preventing work from falling into the public domain and
impeding the 'Encouragement of Learning' that they sought to promote in the first place.
Mashed up, remixed and republished media is made by countless producers for an army of
consumers but joining in with the biggest revolution in publishing history remains illegal.
Isn't it about time copyright law caught up?