Embrace the remix
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0:01 - 0:04We're going to begin in 1964.
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0:04 - 0:07Bob Dylan is 23 years old, and his career
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0:07 - 0:09is just reaching its pinnacle.
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0:09 - 0:12He's been christened the voice of a generation,
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0:12 - 0:14and he's churning out classic songs
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0:14 - 0:16at a seemingly impossible rate,
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0:16 - 0:20but there's a small minority of dissenters, and they claim
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0:20 - 0:24that Bob Dylan is stealing other people's songs.
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0:24 - 0:282004. Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse,
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0:28 - 0:30takes the Beatles' "White Album,"
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0:30 - 0:32combines it with Jay-Z's "The Black Album"
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0:32 - 0:34to create "The Grey Album."
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0:34 - 0:36"The Grey Album" becomes an immediate sensation online,
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0:36 - 0:39and the Beatles' record company sends out countless
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0:39 - 0:42cease-and-desist letters for "unfair competition
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0:42 - 0:46and dilution of our valuable property."
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0:46 - 0:48Now, "The Grey Album" is a remix.
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0:48 - 0:50It is new media created from old media.
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0:50 - 0:53It was made using these three techniques:
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0:53 - 0:56copy, transform and combine.
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0:56 - 0:58It's how you remix. You take existing songs,
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0:58 - 1:00you chop them up, you transform the pieces,
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1:00 - 1:01you combine them back together again,
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1:01 - 1:03and you've got a new song, but that new song
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1:03 - 1:06is clearly comprised of old songs.
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1:06 - 1:09But I think these aren't just the components of remixing.
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1:09 - 1:12I think these are the basic elements of all creativity.
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1:12 - 1:14I think everything is a remix,
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1:14 - 1:19and I think this is a better way to conceive of creativity.
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1:19 - 1:22All right, let's head back to 1964, and let's hear
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1:22 - 1:25where some of Dylan's early songs came from.
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1:25 - 1:27We'll do some side-by-side comparisons here.
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1:27 - 1:28All right, this first song you're going to hear
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1:28 - 1:30is "Nottamun Town." It's a traditional folk tune.
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1:30 - 1:33After that, you'll hear Dylan's "Masters of War."
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1:33 - 1:38Jean Ritchie: ♫ In Nottamun Town, not a soul would look out, ♫
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1:38 - 1:45♫ not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down. ♫
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1:45 - 1:49Bob Dylan: ♫ Come you masters of war, ♫
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1:49 - 1:57♫ you that build the big guns, you that build the death planes, ♫
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1:57 - 2:01♫ You that build all the bombs. ♫
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2:01 - 2:02Kirby Ferguson: Okay, so that's the same basic melody
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2:02 - 2:06and overall structure. This next one is "The Patriot Game,"
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2:06 - 2:08by Dominic Behan. Alongside that,
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2:08 - 2:10you're going to hear "With God on Our Side," by Dylan.
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2:10 - 2:15Dominic Behan: ♫ Come all ye young rebels, ♫
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2:15 - 2:20♫ and list while I sing, ♫
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2:20 - 2:28♫ for the love of one's land is a terrible thing. ♫
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2:28 - 2:34BD: ♫ Oh my name it is nothin', ♫
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2:34 - 2:38♫ my age it means less, ♫
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2:38 - 2:45♫ the country I come from is called the Midwest. ♫
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2:45 - 2:47KF: Okay, so in this case, Dylan admits
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2:47 - 2:49he must have heard "The Patriot Game," he forgot about it,
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2:49 - 2:51then when the song kind of bubbled back up
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2:51 - 2:53in his brain, he just thought it was his song.
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2:53 - 2:54Last one, this is "Who's Going To Buy You Ribbons,"
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2:54 - 2:56another traditional folk tune.
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2:56 - 2:58Alongside that is "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."
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2:58 - 3:00This one's more about the lyric.
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3:00 - 3:07Paul Clayton: ♫ It ain't no use to sit and sigh now, ♫
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3:07 - 3:15♫ darlin', and it ain't no use to sit and cry now. ♫
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3:15 - 3:21BD: ♫ It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe, ♫
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3:21 - 3:24♫ if you don't know by now, ♫
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3:24 - 3:30♫ and it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe, ♫
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3:30 - 3:32♫ it'll never do somehow. ♫
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3:32 - 3:35KF: Okay, now, there's a lot of these.
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3:35 - 3:37It's been estimated that two thirds of the melodies
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3:37 - 3:39Dylan used in his early songs were borrowed.
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3:39 - 3:41This is pretty typical among folk singers.
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3:41 - 3:44Here's the advice of Dylan's idol, Woody Guthrie.
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3:44 - 3:45"The worlds are the important thing.
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3:45 - 3:47Don't worry about tunes. Take a tune,
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3:47 - 3:49sing high when they sing low,
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3:49 - 3:52sing fast when they sing slow, and you've got a new tune."
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3:52 - 3:56(Laughter) (Applause)
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3:56 - 3:58And that's, that's what Guthrie did right here,
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3:58 - 4:00and I'm sure you all recognize the results.
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4:00 - 4:06(Music)
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4:06 - 4:09We know this tune, right? We know it?
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4:09 - 4:10Actually you don't.
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4:10 - 4:13That is "When the World's on Fire," a very old melody,
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4:13 - 4:15in this case performed by the Carter Family.
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4:15 - 4:18Guthrie adapted it into "This Land Is Your Land."
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4:18 - 4:22So, Bob Dylan, like all folk singers, he copied melodies,
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4:22 - 4:25he transformed them, he combined them with new lyrics
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4:25 - 4:27which were frequently their own concoction
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4:27 - 4:29of previous stuff.
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4:29 - 4:33Now, American copyright and patent laws run counter
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4:33 - 4:36to this notion that we build on the work of others.
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4:36 - 4:38Instead, these laws and laws around the world
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4:38 - 4:42use the rather awkward analogy of property.
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4:42 - 4:45Now, creative works may indeed be kind of like property,
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4:45 - 4:47but it's property that we're all building on,
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4:47 - 4:49and creations can only take root and grow
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4:49 - 4:52once that ground has been prepared.
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4:52 - 4:55Henry Ford once said, "I invented nothing new.
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4:55 - 4:57I simply assembled the discoveries of other men
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4:57 - 5:00behind whom were centuries of work.
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5:00 - 5:02Progress happens when all the factors that make for it
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5:02 - 5:06are ready and then it is inevitable."
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5:06 - 5:112007. The iPhone makes it debut.
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5:11 - 5:13Apple undoubtedly brings this innovation to us early,
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5:13 - 5:16but its time was approaching because its core technology
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5:16 - 5:18had been evolving for decades.
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5:18 - 5:20That's multi-touch, controlling a device
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5:20 - 5:21by touching its display.
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5:21 - 5:24Here is Steve Jobs introducing multi-touch
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5:24 - 5:26and making a rather foreboding joke.
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5:26 - 5:29Steve Jobs: And we have invented a new technology
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5:29 - 5:31called multi-touch.
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5:31 - 5:34You can do multi-fingered gestures on it,
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5:34 - 5:37and boy have we patented it. (Laughter)
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5:37 - 5:41KF: Yes. And yet, here is multi-touch in action.
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5:41 - 5:43This is at TED, actually, about a year earlier.
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5:43 - 5:46This is Jeff Han, and, I mean, that's multi-touch.
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5:46 - 5:48It's the same animal, at least.
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5:48 - 5:49Let's hear what Jeff Han has to say about this
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5:49 - 5:51newfangled technology.
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5:51 - 5:53Jeff Han: Multi-touch sensing isn't anything --
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5:53 - 5:56isn't completely new. I mean, people like Bill Buxton
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5:56 - 5:57have been playing around with it in the '80s.
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5:57 - 6:00The technology, you know, isn't the most exciting thing here
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6:00 - 6:04right now other than probably its newfound accessibility.
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6:04 - 6:05KF: So he's pretty frank about it not being new.
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6:05 - 6:08So it's not multi-touch as a whole that's patented.
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6:08 - 6:10It's the small parts of it that are,
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6:10 - 6:11and it's in these small details where
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6:11 - 6:15we can clearly see patent law contradicting its intent:
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6:15 - 6:18to promote the progress of useful arts.
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6:18 - 6:21Here is the first ever slide-to-unlock.
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6:21 - 6:24That is all there is to it. Apple has patented this.
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6:24 - 6:27It's a 28-page software patent, but I will summarize
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6:27 - 6:31what it covers. Spoiler alert: Unlocking your phone
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6:31 - 6:33by sliding an icon with your finger. (Laughter)
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6:33 - 6:36I'm only exaggerating a little bit. It's a broad patent.
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6:36 - 6:39Now, can someone own this idea?
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6:39 - 6:42Now, back in the '80s, there were no software patents,
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6:42 - 6:45and it was Xerox that pioneered the graphical user interface.
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6:45 - 6:48What if they had patented pop-up menus,
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6:48 - 6:52scrollbars, the desktop with icons that look like folders
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6:52 - 6:54and sheets of paper?
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6:54 - 6:57Would a young and inexperienced Apple
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6:57 - 6:59have survived the legal assault from a much larger
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6:59 - 7:04and more mature company like Xerox?
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7:04 - 7:06Now, this idea that everything is a remix might sound
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7:06 - 7:10like common sense until you're the one getting remixed.
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7:10 - 7:12For example ...
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7:12 - 7:13SJ: I mean, Picasso had a saying.
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7:13 - 7:17He said, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."
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7:17 - 7:19And we have, you know,
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7:19 - 7:22always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
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7:22 - 7:24KF: Okay, so that's in '96. Here's in 2010.
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7:24 - 7:27"I'm going to destroy Android because it's a stolen product."
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7:27 - 7:28(Laughter)
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7:28 - 7:32"I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." (Laughter)
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7:32 - 7:36Okay, so in other words, great artists steal, but not from me.
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7:36 - 7:38(Laughter)
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7:38 - 7:41Now, behavioral economists might refer to this sort of thing as loss aversion
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7:41 - 7:44We have a strong predisposition towards protecting
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7:44 - 7:46what we feel is ours.
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7:46 - 7:48We have no such aversion towards copying
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7:48 - 7:50what other people have, because we do that nonstop.
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7:50 - 7:53So here's the sort of equation we're looking at.
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7:53 - 7:55We've got laws that fundamentally treat creative works as property,
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7:55 - 7:58plus massive rewards or settlements
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7:58 - 8:00in infringement cases, plus huge legal fees
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8:00 - 8:02to protect yourself in court,
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8:02 - 8:06plus cognitive biases against perceived loss.
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8:06 - 8:08And the sum looks like this.
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8:08 - 8:11That is the last four years of lawsuits
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8:11 - 8:13in the realm of smartphones.
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8:13 - 8:19Is this promoting the progress of useful arts?
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8:19 - 8:251983. Bob Dylan is 42 years old, and his time
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8:25 - 8:28in the cultural spotlight is long since past.
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8:28 - 8:31He records a song called "Blind Willie McTell,"
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8:31 - 8:33named after the blues singer, and the song
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8:33 - 8:36is a voyage through the past, through a much darker time,
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8:36 - 8:40but a simpler one, a time when musicians like Willie McTell
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8:40 - 8:42had few illusions about what they did.
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8:42 - 8:44"I jump 'em from other writers
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8:44 - 8:47but I arrange 'em my own way."
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8:47 - 8:49I think this is mostly what we do.
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8:49 - 8:52Our creativity comes from without, not from within.
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8:52 - 8:55We are not self-made. We are dependent on one another,
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8:55 - 8:58and admitting this to ourselves isn't an embrace
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8:58 - 9:01of mediocrity and derivativeness.
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9:01 - 9:03It's a liberation from our misconceptions,
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9:03 - 9:06and it's an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves
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9:06 - 9:09and to simply begin.
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9:09 - 9:12Thank you so much. It was an honor to be here.
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9:12 - 9:15Thank you. (Applause)
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9:15 - 9:18Thank you. Thank you. (Applause)
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9:18 - 9:21Thank you. (Applause)
- Title:
- Embrace the remix
- Speaker:
- Kirby Ferguson
- Description:
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Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal and transform.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:42
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Jenny Zurawell approved English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Embrace the remix |