UPDATE: high res video file now on archive.org.
This is a “draft” of our (my and QuestionCopyright.org‘s) first Minute Meme. A draft because the audio track is a placeholder, and we’re eager to hear what all you musicians out there can do with it. Also a draft because we need to make a fancier, more informative page than just this post here! But what is the Internet for, if not to hastily post creative work by the seat of your pants?
There are some blank credits at the end for “Arranged and Recorded by” and “Sound Design.” Any interested musicians/sound designers can re-release the whole thing with their own tracks and appropriate credits. Add and remove credits as needed (but don’t remove mine!). If you don’t add sound effects, cut out the “Sound Design” card; if you want to credit additional voices, add a card for them. I used the fonts Gill Sans and Gill Sans Ultra Bold. Be sure to keep the CC-BY-SA symbols on all the credits – you’ll be releasing your modifications under the same license.
Here are the lyrics:
Copying is not theft.
Stealing a thing leaves one less left
Copying it makes one thing more;
that’s what copying’s for.
Copying is not theft.
If I copy yours you have it too
One for me and one for you
That’s what copies can do
If I steal your bicycle
you have to take the bus,
but if I just copy it
there’s one for each of us!
Making more of a thing,
that is what we call “copying”
Sharing ideas with everyone
That’s why copying
is
FUN!
This track is 90 (or 180) beats per minute. The animation is 24 frames per second, with one beat every 8 frames.
I love it. Please send it to Reel 13 when it is done.
There’s a website out there dedicated to remixing songs, and they have a built-in tool to do it. I figure maybe someone out there might be able to use it for the purpose of this song.
http://www.jamglue.com
Hi!. Only a few words to say that I’ve translated in Galician Language the text of post and put it in http://ribadeando.blogspot.com/2009/12/copiar-non-e-malo.html, with the video embebbed.
Thank you!
I’ll take a stab at music-ifying that. I’ve got a rough draft done but I don’t really know anything about video editing yet (or currently have much time to learn), so I might just send you suitable audio tracks and let you patch it together at your end.
is true loveit
You might want to send in those “Minute Memes” as entries for the Belgian “1-Minute Film & Sound Awards” (an event related to the Leffinge Leuren Music Festival) once applications for next year’s edition are open.
The 30 best movies get played in a loop during the whole festival (17000 visitors in 2009) and the 3 best get a monetary prize (1250/750/500 euro in 2009).
OTOH, the jury consists of professional musicians & movie/TV-makers, not sure all of them will like these Minute Meme…
(Still worth a try though!)
Oh, forgot to add a link: http://www.1minute.be/index.en.html
[...] is not theft Esta mañana he encontrado este vídeo de Nina Paley gracias a la gente de riotcinema, a la que, por cierto, os recomiendo seguir porque están haciendo [...]
Dig it, Nina. Excellent format for complex ideas. Keep ‘em coming.
Here is a great little essay Steve Albini wrote entitled “Music Is Free”:
My long experience with bands and musicians has taught me that they
understand their place in the world pretty well. They also understand
that music is (always has been) free to consume. If you play your
radio, it costs nothing to listen. If you walk by an open window while
someone is playing an album, it costs nothing. If you stand outside a
club and listen, it costs nothing. Music is free. Musicians often sing
and play informally (get this!) just for fun.
Records, concert tickets and the use of music in commerce — those
things cost money.
The primary relationship that drives all parts of the music business
is the relationship between a band and its audience. Record retailers,
labels, producers, managers, lawyers, promoters and other parasitic
professionals all subsist on whatever money they can siphon off of
this fundamental relationship. Mechanical and broadcast royalties (the
royalties supposedly “lost” through file sharing) are the part of this
transaction that is least efficient in getting money to the artist
because most of it is siphoned-off by the rest of the music industry.
Of a $15 sale, the average band stuck on a major label may not receive
a single penny, and amortized over the life of a release may receive
(after all the other players take their rake) a buck or so.
I should note that entrepreneurial independent labels that operate on
a profit-sharing model can be an order of magnitude more efficient,
and that one of the efficiencies is the lack of promotional outlay
required because fan file sharing does the promotion for free.
In short, these “lost” royalties are a huge part of the revenue stream
of the institutional part of the mainstream music business, but a
miniscule part of the income of a band.
Almost universally, bands and musicians are happy anyone is interested
in their music enough to become a fan, and they know there are many
opportunities to do some business with such a person that may or may
not involve selling him a particular record.
They also recognize that a download by someone unwilling to buy a
record is not a “lost sale,” because that person has made it clear
that he is unwilling to buy a record. You haven’t lost a sale, you’ve
made a fan for free. Fans eventually want to buy records, concert
tickets and other things.
A single sale = a small bet.
A lifetime fan = a huge pot.
Copying isn’t theft? Tell that to my English teacher. I could have gotten better grades on every last one of my term papers had I been allowed to just copy someone else’s paper and sign my name to it.
You are confusing copying with plagiarism. You can freely copy a Shakespeare play and other Public Domain works, but if you sign your name to it you are a plagiarist. Copying is not theft, nor is it plagiarism; theft is theft, and plagiarism is plagiarism. Maybe another English class is in order.
Hi Nina
What is your position on downloading and watching “big studio” films illegally on the internet?
Thanks
It’s not theft.
Theft is an interesting word. Sure, the person you’re copying the movie from hasnt lost their copy, but it certainly is a lost sale from the creator.
How do you expect artists who work in large studios to get compensated if people stop going to movies or buying/renting DVDs or acquire some other form of legally downloaded media?
[...] parte do projeto Minute Memes, liderado pela premiadada diretora de animação e artista gráfica Nina Paley. A iniciativa vai abortar várias questões relativas a restrições de copyright e liberdade [...]
Elan, 19th century industrial revolution stolen money from handwork workers. Do you think machines had to be forbidden then?
Elan: Theft is defined as depriving someone of their property without their consent. The studios are not being deprived of anything if you copy their movies and give them away–they still have their original copy.
As to your question of how the artists are supposed to be compensated, ask Nina about that. You are trying justify the use of the law to prop up an out-dated business model. “Potential loss” is not “demonstrable loss.”
Copying is not theft. Period.
This line of reasoning is absolute nonsense. First of all most of the opensource community wants freebies. I think small percentage of the opensource community are programmers. I support copyright laws 100% there too many thieves and plagiarizers out there. Imagine if you made a graphic novel and some jerk stole your manuscript put their name on it profited from your hard work.
Your so called creative commons license is a form of copyright. Nice try on questioning the copyright. There are too many dishonest people out there. I’d rather have the ironclad protection of a trademark than the a flimsy creative commons and faith in a fickle society! Not to mention Sega Dreamcast went out of business because it was easy to make copies of Sega Dreamcast games. Sounds like the anthem of bootleggers and pirates. Pirate should use this as their meme!