RiP A Remix Manifesto

Your Name Patrick Bratton Class time: Online

Name of Movie: Rip: A remix manifesto
Year: 2008
Producers: Daniel Cross, Mila Aung Thwin, Ravida Din, Sally Bochner

Your questions after watching the film:

 Will piracy ever be stopped?
 Why do you hear mostly companies complaining about piracy rather than artist?
 Will companies eventually just give up on trying to stop piracy?

1. There are 6 characters in this film. Name 3 of these people, and why they are included in the film (who they are). How do they relate to the overall theme of the film (Knowledge):
a. Dan O’Neill, a cartoonist and founder of Air Pirates, a group sued by the Walt Disney Company for copyright infringement.
b. Jammie Thomas, single mom sued by Recording Industry Association of America for $222,220 for uploading 24 songs to the now shut down Kazaa file-sharing network.
c. Lawrence Lessig, political activist and a professor at Stanford Law School, wants to have reduced legal restrictions in technological applications.


2. Who is Gregg Gillis? What is Girltalk? What are the main ideas being discussed within this movie? (Comprehension)

Gregg Gillis is a remixing musician, preferably a DJ, that is in the band Girltalk. The main ideas being discussed are that it is perfectly fine to remix someone else’s music to create a new song. Gregg Gillis supports that idea.


3. What is ReMixing? Specifically, why does narrator Brett Gaylor say that the computer is Gregg Gillis’ instrument. Explain what it does and how this technologic advancement is changing music. (Comprehension)

ReMixing is taking someone’s original song, creating mash ups with notes cut up and rearranged to make new songs. The computer is Gregg Gillis’ instrument because he creates the mash ups on it with ease. This is changing music because a person can take an original song and create a completely new song with the lyrics and notes.


4. Based on the main point off this film, where do you see connections to your experiences, society, or what you’ve read in the book/watched on Angel– BE SPECIFIC (Application)?

Based off my experience I have seen the remixing of music almost on a daily basis. There are remixes on the radio, TV and the clubs. I am a rap fan and I’ve noticed a large amount of songs being sampled from old songs so remixing and sampling is definitely in the mainstream.


5. Analyze what you’ve watched. What is the future of distribution, production and creativity of music? (Analysis)

The future of the distribution, production and creativity of music looks promising for the future. I honestly do not see anything changing because companies continuing to lose money. I feel that people who remix, and piracy is never going anywhere and there will never be a mutual agreement between pirates and companies. People can already download music fast today but in the future it will be with a snap of a finger, I think it may get that fast one day and creativity will never die because people love to create never music.


6. Do you think that remixing is stealing someone’s Intellectual Property? Why or why not? (Analysis)?

I do not think remixing is stealing someone’s Intellectual Property. I understand that to remix you have to take someone’s original song and alter it but remixing is not easy. I have tried to remix songs before, it takes creativity. With that said I believe the remixing then becomes your work, people will obviously know you remixed an original song but you don’t get respect for that, you get respect for the remix.

7. How will the issues of copyright and Intellectual property affect the world in 10 years? BE SPECIFIC SITE OUTSIDE SOURCES (SYNTHESIS)

I feel that in 10 years people will continue to download music just as they do today. I do not seeing copyright laws taking full effect on society because how can you enforce that without doing something unethical like requiring people to put a computer chip on their computer monitoring their activity.

8. Do you agree with what is being said within movie? What shifts in your opinion on this topic have happened from watching this film? What new ideas have you created after watching and thinking about this film? (Evaluation)

I do agree with what is being said in the movie. I feel people should be allowed to remix music as much as they want to. By watching the movie you see how the music brought people together and everyone was having a good time. That is important to me because it is reality, music does bring people together and I feel copyright laws and major companies just need to back off because the piracy of music and the remixing of it is not going anywhere and I truly believe it never will.

State your original questions and answer them below:
 NO! I do not feel that piracy will be stopped. I don’t care how much they try to scare people with their copyright laws, people will continue to download and remix music.
 I feel that artist don’t complain as much because they may see it as a sign of respect for their music. And they are compensated with a contract anyway, so the selling of their music will basically be like commission not only that but musicians know they have fans out there who see them as their favorite and will buy their music. At the end of the day, they are still rich. It is the companies who are money hungry.
 I feel that companies may never actually give up in the fight to stop piracy but just slowly stop complaining about it and let it go because they truly know they will never be able to stop it.