Awesome Stuff: Art & Copyright

Right To Copy Magazine

There are a lot of different aspects to the discussion around copyright, but the most important and fundamental is the fact that it’s completely incompatible with the reality of how art and culture functions. Right to Copy is a magazine dedicated to exploring exactly that, and it looks like it’s going to be packed with interesting content. The first issue includes stuff from frequent Techdirt staple Cory Doctorow, and a new interview with author Jonathan Lethem (whose excellent essay, The Ecstasy of Influence, you may recall), as well as a bunch of other content that will be of interest to Techdirt readers. All in all, it looks like a magazine very much worth reading, and certainly worth supporting — it’s currently a one-man project, and it’d be great to see it grow into something bigger.

Everything Is A Remix: Star Wars Edition

Surely all our readers are familiar with the Everything Is A Remix documentary videos by Kirby Ferguson. Recently, he released a new edition of the series focused on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, along with a new Kickstarter campaign to support the ongoing project. There’s some fun merchandise available: new Star Wars-inspired EIAR t-shirts and stickers, plus a new book (in either PDF or printed form) about Kirby’s own remixing process. There’s also a very cool reward for serious fans: an hour-long exclusive video chat with Kirby himself, where he’ll be discussing his process and philosophy and taking questions. EIAR has been fighting the good fight for quite some time, and has been critical in spreading a deeper understanding of how culture functions and how copyright gets in its way — and I encourage anyone who cares about those topics to show their support.