From the Remix Manifesto to Kopimism

Brett Gaylor’s RIP: A Remix Manifesto helped to break this conversation open. Framed around Remix, he explores how a shift from content to ideas is going is what defines broader cultural change generationally.

Gaylor’s Philosophy of Remix:

1. CULTURE ALWAYS BUILDS ON THE PAST

2. THE PAST TRIES TO CONTROL THE FUTURE

3. OUR FUTURE IS BECOMING LESS FREE

4. TO BUILD FREE SOCIETIES YOU MUST LIMIT THE CONTROL OF THE PAST

The film was made using all of the legal resources that Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/ provides.

This film is just one building block of a larger movement for free media. I recently stumbled on an article about something called KOPIMISM.

KOPIMISM is a new self-declared religious group in Sweden.

Their Philosophy:

• All knowledge to all
• The search for knowledge is sacred
• The circulation of knowledge is sacred
• The act of copying is sacred.
• Copying of information is ethically right.

• Dissemination of information is ethically right.
• Copymixing is a sacred kind of copying, moreso than the perfect, digital copying, because it expands and enhances the existing wealth of information
• Copying or remixing information communicated by another person is seen as an act of respect and a strong expression of acceptance and Kopimistic faith.
• The Internet is holy.
• Code is law.

Now some of this may be a little bizarre and could turn people away. However there is a strong similarity between the basic tenets of Kopimists and Gaylor’s Manifesto.

Change is still happening and the copyright industry will be casualty.

I’m not going to debate whether or not that is good or bad. It is more important to focus on the free use and protecting self expression, which according to both of these philosophies is the foundation of free societies.

The monetary value of such information (books, music, television, films etc…) is undoubtedly going to continue to decrease as it has over the last decade. When the last organization decides to stop trying to tax, fine, sue or overcharge for the information that is already out there, we could finally see a big change.

THE ENTIRE FILM CAN BE WATCHED HERE:

RIP: A Remix Manifesto