New film -- copyright and mashups

The concept behind "Mashups," creating new compositions using bits and pieces of other compositions, is certainly not new. With the rapid growth of digital information, however, the mashup as an art form seems to be coming into its own. The collision of this art form, that unapologetically borrows without asking permission, and the various media industries who claim ownership of the borrowed material, is the subject of a new film called RiP: A Remix Manifesto by Canadian filmmaker Brett Gaylor.

Mashup artists such as Danger Mouse and Girl Talk, the main subject of Gaylor's film, have produced popular music by mixing together various artists' output -- most notably the Beatles and Jay Z in the case of Danger Mouse, with Girl Talk often sampling 20-plus songs to create one new song. Their argument, echoed by other copyright-reform advocates, is that their use is transformative and thus meets the requirements of fair use. Media companies tend to disagree.
Here's a description of the movie from its website:

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.

Which side of the ideas war are you on?

The "ideas war?!" Sounds exciting!

The movie is making the festival rounds and screening in a couple of Canadian cities, but don't fear if you can't make it -- Gaylor walks the walk and has made the film available on the website for his other project, opensourcecinema.org.