Creative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses Essays -- Argumenta

Creative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses It’s likely happened to you before, you turn on your radio, or favorite music video network and begin listening to a song by some hot new pop starlet, hip-hop superstar, or aging rocker. The beat is catchy, inviting, and oddly familiar, almost too familiar in fact. You may think, â€Å"Didn’t David Bowie, or, hmm, wasn’t it that guy from Queen that played this riff in like ten years ago? Who is this Vanilla Ice guy and why is he rapping over it?† If you were old enough to remember Under Pressure and subsequently were listening Ice Ice Baby in 1990 (likely while cruising in your Mustang 5.0 convertible on your way to a Milli Vanilli concert), you would have experienced an example of modern day sampling. Whether it is literature, music, science, or art, there are few, if any, new and innovative ideas that are completely original through and through. Our predecessors inspire us to build upon their work, and develop new arts, technologies, and ideas that will advance our society as a whole. Sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording, and then reusing that portion as an element, or instrument, in a new recording. (Wikipedia) Sampling is an excellent example of a modern way in which others ideas seed our own creativity. Improvements in the technologies that both mediate and constrict the ability to sample, from analog recording devices of the late 1970s, to the digital software suites of today, run parallel with rise in popularity of sample based music. The internet, and other forms of communication that have allowed creative people from around the world to cull inspiration from anywhere, has lead to an increase in remixes, collages, pastiches, a... ...l.ca/copyrightlaw/chapter1.html#a8> Lessig, Lawrence. â€Å"Creative Freedom For All.† Wired Magazine. Vol. 12 Issue 11. November 2004. Plotkin, Hal. â€Å"All Hail Creative Commons: Stanford professor and author Lawrence Lessig plans a legal insurrection.† SFGate.com. February 11, 2002. â€Å"Sampling (music)† Wikipedia. Accessed November 22, 2004. Shachtman, Noah. â€Å"Copyright Enters a Gray Area.† Wired News. Feburary 14, 2004. â€Å"Some Rights Reserved: Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright.† Creative Commons Accessed November 22, 2004.