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I'm writing to add to our mix of possibilities for discussion a 1 1/2-hour YouTube video called "RiP! A Remix Manifesto," which uses re-mixes, mash-ups, and other forms of "culture jamming" and (so-called) "piracy" to challenge what Mark long ago called the "oxymoron of intellectual property"; the documentary argues that copyright is an historical anomaly, particular to the 20th century's peculiar ways of making money.

I found it a little slow to start (probably because the culture referents belong to the next generation!), but I think the story it tells is compelling, and very relevant to (@ least one of our) topics, that of emergent aesthetics (3 sound bites: "the music industry refused to evolve, so we evolved for them";  "the rules of this game are up to you"; "mixture is the future of the human race"). The documentary analogizes the work of music "sampling" to reading journals and taking notes, to writing articles and citing others, and argues in general that patenting ideas holds back knowledge exchange and development.

I'd be very interested to hear what you (and your students!) think of the argument developed here (and of course of the form it takes, which is itself a mash-up). Here's "The Remix Manifesto" in outline form:

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.