The TED Talk I chose is Kirby Ferguson's titled Embrace the Remix. In this video he is voicing his opinion on why the modern interpretation of patent law is actually going against its own principles.
His argument is one that human creativity cannot infinitely come from within, but rather comes from "with-out". He illustrates examples like Bob Dylan, the voice of a generation, who some say copied 2/3 of the material in his songs. Danger Mouse, the DJ that remixed the Beatles and Jay-Z to make the Grey Album. Henry Ford who admits to never inventing ANYTHING, but simply rearranging prior inventions!
The way to conceive of creativity is by understanding the remix and how the remix process actually ends up with a totally new creative entity.
Nowadays patent laws use the award analogy of property and this is where a lot of issues stem out from. For example Steve Jobs was first quoted saying that great artists STEAL in the 90s but later in 2008 was willing to go "thermonuclear war" on Android for "copying" his idea the iPhone. So basically -- copying is ok, as long as its not from me!
Patent Laws were made to promote progress, however oftentimes they do the opposite. It is our job to keep a level head and remember the whole purpose being our patent system and perhaps most importantly rethink how we think about creativity!
Well that's all for this post. Watch the video below for a discussion on the above!
Cheers!
Hi Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteI like your upbeat tone that you take when you write your posts. I also like how you intersperse your analysis with summary. I think there is very little you can do to improve!
Hi Oliviero, I agree with your analysis and your interpretation of the Kirby video. He brought up some great examples of how building off of each others ideas is our way of being creative and that by building off of current inventions we can create better ones. Great post!
ReplyDeleteWow, great job noting all the details from this video! It helped make your analysis very dense and interesting to read. This was one of my favorite of the 6 Tedtalks we watched so I was happy to read about your thoughts on it!
ReplyDeleteHey Olivier, thanks for summarizing this video. It would have been great to hear more of your thoughts on Ferguson's argument.
ReplyDeleteHi Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteI like your summary and analysis of this talk a lot! What is your favorite part and what is a part you don't agree with completely?
Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this post it was extremely informative. I especially liked the part about Steve Jobs because I've personally always been a pc guy even with my phone because I feel like they've just created a cult following instead of really innovating with every step. Again thanks for the post I loved reading it!
Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteGreat post on the remixing of both patent and how different companies and people can twist ideas (not through malintent, but for their own use). Given the guidelines that we were thought on non-obviousness and prior art, how could simply rearranging something (i.e. the Henry Ford example) be considered to be non-obvious or violating prior art? I guess the answer to that lies in re-arrangement not being considered IP violation as rearrangement still shows unique thought.
Cheers
Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteI think you make a great point about remixes and how originality is about embracing the remix and the components of prior art. This TED talk was very pertinent to the theme of learning from others and topics of obviousness and novelty. IP is a very interesting topic to talk about, and I think this TED talk dissipated certain thoughts about originality. I know for a fact it did for me. I really enjoyed reading this post, Great Work!
Cheers