There's a reason Jack Sparrow's a generational icon.

I found Good Copy Bad Copy to be a very interesting perspective on copyright. The film expresses that piracy is inevitable, and I agree. Just like the pirate generation of the past, we are always willing to rebel against some old pasty dudes (with or without the wigs.) Whether you think it is right or wrong is almost irrelevant. For me, I will buy something I think is worth spending money on...but how do you find that out? I think for people growing up in a generation with the recourses to skirt around copyright law, piracy (which Dan Glickman of the MPAA describes in the film as "theft intelluctual property without compensation") is a starting point to weed through the gazillions of media sources out there to determine for oneself what they deem "Intellectual property." If I hear of a new band and some people tell me I should buy the album, I will take it upon myself to "preview" that artist. If they are unoriginal--and therefore "unintellectual"-- I will not feel bad about listening to their album before deciding to waste my money on it. The industry must ultimately come up with a way for artist to be compensated by fans, while realizing there is no way to avoid piracy.


Speaking of originality, I am a huge fan of recreativity or reconstruction. I think Girl Talk put this concept in perspective when he said "everyone is bombarded with media enough that I think we've almost been forced to kind of take it upon ourself and use as an art form...that's what's happening with remix culture" If everything has already been "done" then why not redo it to make it better? (and I'm not talking about producers and actors alike making money from a fourth sequel of an already crappy movie.) Growing up in this digital age means an overload of information and media. Why not express yourself through the very sources we are absolutely swimming in. In the film Lawrence Lessig also says "Copyright...can prohibit creativity." Should one's imagination be forced to limit itself for the sake of appearing "original"? If an idea spawns from an existing idea, I say "Get off your ass and jam!"