Forty years ago this year, in a recording studio above a liquor store in Kingston, Jamaica, a sound engineer accidentally recorded an instrumental version of a record onto an acetate disc, also known as a dubplate. A DJ named Ruddy Redwood took that disc to a soundclash that evening, and mixed the instrumental version of the record (On The Beach, by The Paragons) together with the original vocal version. That night the crowd made him play it so many times, by the time the sun came up, the record was worn out. This is how the remix was born.

Forty years later the idea behind the remix, the idea of fair use, is all pervasive. We understand it implicitly, and expect to be able to use certain things a certain way. We understand that fair use is good, helps us learn and build on what came before us. Or at least, most of us do.

Increasingly the concept of fair use is coming under fire from some big businesses. Brands are worth more than the physical items they are placed on (which is why the world’s largest sneaker manufacturers don’t own any sneaker factories), physical capital has lost weight in the information age, ideas and content are more important. As fast as new ways develop for us to share information, a noose is also tightening around it.

Last weekend the NFL broadcast this message before a football game:

This statement essentially prohibits you from talking about the game with a friend. The first rule of the NFL is you do not talk about the NFL. The second rule of the NFL is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE NFL!!!

This was the same week that commercial science publishers launched a non-profit organization called Prism to take down the open access science movement. Prism makes the bizarre claim that giving people free access to publicly-funded science research is the same as “government censorship”. Orwell couldn’t write this stuff. The best part of this story is that Prism were then busted by bloggers for allegedly “borrowing” the stock photos on their website from Getty Images.

Meanwhile Monsanto moved a step closer to patenting the pig, Amazon, Yahoo, Google and others were sued for using automated email responses, which have been patented in East Texas, and The Red Cross is getting sued for using the red cross as a logo by Johnson & Johnson.

If J&J win, Wal-Mart will probably soon try and copyright the smiley face, (wait, they already did) Urban Outfitters may trademark the face of Che Guevara and Reddit will sue this weird fish for looking like their alien.

The world is going mad. Fair use helps us create value and generate new ideas, locking ideas and information up behind unreasonable restrictions and artificial boundaries stifles it. It’s time to defend fair use for what it’s really worth. Luckily, the Computer & Communications Industry Association is fighting back.

“We filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in which we asked the governments foremost enforcer of consumer rights to stop big media from making these ridiculous claims. Now, we want you to add your voice.

Their answer? Threats and exaggerations that misrepresent your rights. Your rights include the right to make Fair Use. But some of the Big Content companies don’t like the idea that the law limits their control over how you use what you’ve legally acquired. These companies know that, by law, anyone can quote, excerpt and even copy their works for things like journalism, homework and research and discussion of all sorts. Big media companies are turning increasingly aggressive in their efforts to discourage people from doing what they have always done with the media they bought and programs they have recorded in their own homes.”

http://www.defendfairuse.org