Good Copy, Bad Copy, and Something Inbetween

Good Copy, Bad Copy is a documentary filmed in 2007 focusing on several aspects of copyright, creativity, intellectual property, and remix culture. The film features not only artists like Girl Talk and Danger Mouse, but also interviews with copyright lawyers, the creators of The Pirate Bay, a file sharing service, and the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Unlike many other films and texts about copyright and file sharing, Good Copy, Bad Copy offers multiple perspectives on the challenges and issues raised in the digital age.

Towards the beginning of the film, at roughly 3:45, the lawsuit Bridgeport Music vs. Dimension is brought up as one of the most important examples of music copyright law.
“Get off your ass and jam”, a song by George Clinton, was sampled by another artist group. Two seconds of a guitar riff were sampled by rap group N.W.A for “100 miles and runnin”, and those two seconds were stretched out and looped throughout the song. Since this sample is so distorted and nearly undetectable, that many insist it should be considered a de minimis offence, or an offence that is so minuscule that the law is not concerned with prosecuting offenders. However, the courts have decided that even two seconds of sampling is too many. The current guidelines state that if you sample, you license, point blank. However, in a cultural landscape where remixes, remakes and mashups are often more popular than the original, this creates problems faster than the courts and the current laws can cover them.

Many believe that copyright law is not inherently wrong, but simply outdated.
Lawrence Lessig is one such person, stating “I fundamentally believe in copyright and its need in the digital age. The only problem is that it’s become so expansive and so powerful that it can begin to actually inhibit creativity.” (23:06)
One possible solution to the problems presented by rapidly developing technology that allows for the proliferation of user-created content would be to update current copyright and intellectual property laws. “We should update the law to make the law make sense of these technologies.” Lessig adds. (24:00)

However, it’s apparent that record labels and movie studios have no intention of letting the law change. Even now, in 2015, eight years after the documentary was filmed, the regulations and restrictions on copyright and intellectual property are even tighter. Although there has been a proliferation of services and platforms designed to meet the needs of the digital age, like Netflix and Hulu for TV and movies, or Spotify, a ten dollar per month  unlimited music streaming service that was, eerily enough, predicted in the documentary, there are still millions of illegal downloads of music, TV shows, movies, and software.

“If the record labels continue to stick to their old business model in the new technology, it will not work. It will slow down development.” Peter Jenner says, indicating that record labels will lose the fight, regardless of whether they have the law on their side. (35:02)
“They've started suing people. Which is not a very great thing to do.” He adds. (35:49)

Until the law changes, it seems that record labels, movie producers, and other ‘corporate bigwigs’ will continue to stand in opposition to a growing public need for creative freedom.

Works Cited:

Good Copy, Bad Copy: A Documentary about the Current State of Copyright and Culture. Dir Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. 2007. Web. https://archive.org/details/Good_Copy_Bad_Copy-film#