• Did the unlicensed use ‘transform’ the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
• Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

These are the questions that drive our remix work and they are taken directly from THE CODE OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE FOR ONLINE VIDEO. Published by the Center for Social Media at American University, this important document explains how and when remix is considered FAIR USE - the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances. The Code of Best Practices was drawn up by a distinguished panel of experts including Pat Aufderheide who has been skyping and advising us in the process.

Look for our posted remixes soon with explanations about how they apply to Fair Use!

FURI has launched! We began on Day One by trying to wrap our brains around the idea of copyright law, fair use, free speech and what all of that has to do with mixing and mashing our way to a freer youth culture. Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films came in to talk about the history of copyright and the importance of the fair use clause. Gordon recounted many of his experiences and struggles to use copyrighted material–for both intended and incidental use in his documentaries–and gave us “hot off the presses” copies of the new CODE OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE FOR ONLINE VIDEO published by the Center for Social Media. We discussed the moral and material interests of artists, which copyright was enacted to best preserve, and we dissected the myriad ways in which copyright can both stimulate and stifle creativity. On more practical levels, Gordon emphasized the importance of attribution when using copyrighted material, both in the credits of a work, and specifically in NOT blurring out any “bugs” or identifiers in our source material. We also dove into the notion of transformation, and both the legal and artistic implications of using copyrighted material in ways that transform it (or fail to do so) into something new and of our own authorship.

Then on Tuesday, Pat Aufderheide was Skyped in for a live video chat. Pat really picked up on the notion of transformative works, and also fielded several questions about copyright in other countries and the recent battle over copyright and court order with Viacom and Goolge/YouTube. Pat talked about her desire to see YouTube and other video platforms include elements from the Code of Best Practices into their notices and “takedown” emails, after their bots remove a user’s video that might be merely a re-posting of copywritten material, but that also might well be a transformative work that legitimately employs fair use. We will be checking in with Pat again later this week, after we digest this mighty manifesto some more.

Political Remix Artist, Jonathan McIntosh, showed and deconstructed examples of his own work. Jonathan also shared with us much of the source footage, and explained both his process and motivation in making his remixes.

Today, we begin creating our own critical music video remixes after watching several examples yesterday such as “George Bush Doesn’t Like Black People” and many others.