Ch 4: REmixing is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Released over 2 years ago

	[This essay is part of the essay series "Everything I Need to Know About HitRECord I Learned in Kindergarten" http://hitrecord.org/records/42282] Chapter 4: REmixing is the Sincerest Form of Flattery In the 21st century, the old quote is in need of an update: Today REmixing is the sincerest form of flattery. This essay stems from a discussion among some of hitRecord.org's more prolific writers. However, it is really applicable to all forms of media. HitRecord required some of us, including myself, to confront and bring into the open some feelings that we were not aware of. In theory, we all support the REmix concept, or we would not be here. But most of us seemed to have been thinking only in terms of having our work transformed (largely untouched) into audio and video media. Inevitably, though, we began to confront the elephant in the room: writers altering the text of other writers. There is no question that this is fully within the bounds and intents of the HitRECord Accord. We all knew this going in. However, confronted with the actual reality of the potential to alter the work of other writers, and in turn having them alter our work, many of us found ourselves treading very lightly, hesitant with the feeling that we might be somehow unwelcome trespassers in another writer's mental playground. And behind that, I felt some queasiness at the potential for others to alter my work. Somewhere along the line, most of us writers seem to have absorbed (some more than others) an ethic that remixing text is somehow a trespass, a violation of the author. As this discussion unfolded, I was surprised to find that I myself had partially, though only partially, internalized this attitude. I believe that ethic is a holdover from a fairly brief period in the grand sweep of human history and progress, stretching roughly five short centuries from the first copyright laws, shortly after the invention of printing, through the early twenty first century. During this period, for generations of authors and readers, text became sacrosanct. But that era is slowly ending as we speak, made obsolete by modern information technology, and above all the rise of the Internet. The new business model for creative arts, the HitRECord Accord (also known as "The New Deal") is a giant step towards a new era. We writers on hitRECord are still confronting this issue, and we are figuring out as we go along how the actual details of larger and larger scale collaborations will actually work. Nevertheless, throughout the discussions, I have felt my own feelings begin to alter as I recognize the enormous, never before dreamed benefits we writers (and our readers, and those who convert our work into other media) are all about to enjoy. The synergies inherent in large scale collaborative authoring are vast beyond imagining, are they about to explode onto the scene. The very process of writing is about to take a giant leap forward. I cannot wait to read the results, and see them on the silver screen. Future writers (and creators in all media) being born today will grow up realizing the truth that has always been, but has been suppressed for the past five centuries: to select my work for your remix is the greatest honor, tribute, and respect you can give my work. To be read is an honor. HeART's and praiseful comments are a greater honor. But to be Resourced in someone else's work is the greatest honor of all. Soon we will all let go of the last vestiges of obsolete attitudes and fully embrace that timeless and universal truth. Previous - Ch 3: The Language and Culture of HitRECord.org http://hitrecord.org/records/42259 Next: Ch 5: Expanded Visions - Multiple Media, Multiple Revenues http://hitrecord.org/records/43612