Has Andy Baio Read Kirby Ferguson?

The two authors, Andy Baio and Kirby Ferguson, argue about the same topic in their similar texts. Since they are so similar, it seems that there are moments in Baios' text when it appears that they are in direct conversation. In Baios' blog post "Kind of Screwed" there are several moments that capture my attention and remind me of moments in Ferguson's documentary Everything is a Remix. In Baios' post he uses the same technique that Ferguson implies. One prominent technique that they both use is comparing and contrasting different examples that apply to the argument. Baio tends to compare transforming photographs into pixelated or cartoon pictures, while Ferguson mainly compares music songs from artists, such as Led Zeppelin, and how they remixed other bands' work. This technique that Baio seems to copy form Ferguson is one that strengthens both their arguments.

Baio seems to have read Ferguson before due to the fact that he even mentions Ferguson and his documentary, Everything is a Remix, at the end of "Kind of Screwed". Baio seems to take Ferguson's ideas and techniques, implementing them into his own post, ultimately strengthening his argument. One other technique that Baio incorporates into his blog post that is similar to Ferguson is after he makes his case to the audience, he questions the audience "where would you draw the line?", ultimately getting his audience to think about the copyright laws and how they should be changed and what they should consist of. Ferguson does the same thing throughout his documentary as he engages his audience throughout his argument, creating an effective and thought provoking text.

"A Kind of Bloop" Remix

In his blog post Kind of Screwed, Andy Baio, discusses his struggles with copyright acts and the dilemmas he has had to face due to his pixel cover for Kind of Bloop, a digitally remixed tribute to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. The pixelated drawing of Jay Maisel's portrait of Miles Davis became a huge legal problem for Andy Baio as he was sent a letter demanding payment for damages up to $150,000. As Baio describes, copyright issues nowadays are always very frustrating due to the 1976 Copyright Act, which is very vague, causing many misinterpretations that lead to many disagreements about the topic of "fair use". In his blog post Baio makes his argument known to his audience as he explains it with informative speech and gives visual aid examples of other copyright dilemmas that, unlike his pixelated cover, resulted in "fair use".

Throughout his post Baio relies heavily on the use of many facts and information about the way the copyright act works and what eventually comes into play when deciding if the material was basically stolen or not. The fact that Baio portrays his use of logos so efficiently to his audience, shows that he is very knowledgable about copyright use and can be seen as a reliable source. As Baio continues to portray the struggle of his legal dilemma, he creates an audience that becomes sympathetic to his position in his disagreement with Maisel. One example of this is when Baio points out John Taylor's "remixing" of movie posters, a similar situation, that resulted in a decision of "fair use". Baio goes on to explain his opinion that John Taylor's art was the same thing, but unfortunately Maisel disagreed. As Baio describes his hardship through the rejection of his pixelated cover, a sense sympathy for Baio is formed through Baio's argument against the verdict of his copyright violation.

Everything is a Remix by Kirby Ferguson
http://vimeo.com/14912890

A Fair(y) Use Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CJn_jC4FNDo

Throughout the video Everything is a Remix Kirby Ferguson explains the concept of copyrights and why they are so crucial in a world filled with creativity. He explains this through the idea of remixing other people's ideas and reusing them in your own work. After watching this video you realize how remixing is found everywhere, especially in music. In this video the notion of copyright and using other's ideas in order to create a remix is displayed through the famous band, Led Zeppelin. Many of their hit songs, such as Stairway to Heaven, have in fact been remixed from other band's material. Stairway to Heaven is shown to be copied from Spirit's "Taurus" after they went on tour with Spirit three years before. The fact is that Led Zeppelin did not give the credit due to the bands that they copied and never made the necessary changes to the songs to make them their own. The argument that Kirby Ferguson successfully addresses in his video is that there is in fact a way to legally copy or remix someone's work.

Unlike the video A Fair(y) Use Tale, Kirby Ferguson uses real life examples to explain the idea of copyright and remixing. Through his video he informs his audience about legally remixing someone else's work and giving credit where credit is due while portraying the idea of bands copying the sounds and rhythms of other's. On the other hand, in the video A Fair(y) Use Tale the student creators were able to show how to legally use clips from numerous Disney movies, such as The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, ultimately portraying Kirby Ferguson's idea of legally remixing. The fact that they used Disney movie clips in their video is significant due to the fact that Disney is a huge corporation that is very protective of their copyrights. Because of this, A Fair(y) Tale Use not only gives off facts about copyrights to the viewers and how it works, but displays Kirby Ferguson's idea of remixing by using many different video clips from different Disney movies.

http://vimeo.com/14912890