During my time on the internet as a creator I’ve had to deal with an ungodly amount of issues related to copyright. From getting videos deleted on YouTube, to TikTok’s getting muted all the way to my Soundcloud account getting banned, copyright has always held back my creativity.
It’s been a belief of mine for years that everything is a remix of a remix. You are a remix of your parents. The buildings you look at in your city are a remix of materials from this earth. Any song you listen to is a remix of a combination of sounds and feelings the creator has experienced.
Literally everything can be broken down into components that have influenced a creation.
Now how does this relate to my feelings on copyright?
I believe copyright should be lifted and all works should be accessible to the public for recomposition. Most would think this takes attention and value away from original works when in reality it actually drives even more value back to an original work.
Take the clipping movement you see all over short form media today. Everyday people will chop up podcast clips, post them on TikTok and make a small amount of revenue on the views they generate.
Most people would get mad that the original creator isn’t receiving that income. However, I believe the person who was able to generate more engagement and attention on something they didn’t technically entirely create should be fairly compensated.
Streamers and creators today are often encouraging their audience to create these clips in return for monetary rewards from the creator themselves. Because creators understand the true value lies in how much attention you can drive back towards your brand.
We are seeing early stages of tools being built in web3 that encourage users to recompose on chain art in their own unique creations. Platforms like Zora have built a simple art creation tool called Canvas that lets people use NFTs directly tied to another artists original work as a layer in their own composition.
The great thing about everything being on chain is that if the work you create using someone else’s NFT were to be sold, a small percentage of that sale would go back to the original creator.
You can now imagine how if tools like this were to be extrapolated out across multiple mediums like music or writing, how a whole new world of on chain creation would emerge. Creators would be encouraged to remix others work because the flow of value can be directly linked to original work or idea, ensuring that everyone along the value chain is compensated. There would be an explosion of creativity as the everyday person is finally allowed to incorporate the work they love from others into their own unique creations that if successful will only send value back down the chain of creators.
