Open Source Cinema - An Open Source Documentary Film about Copyright

Music Wants To Be Free!

On the advice of my lawyer, I must qualify the above statement. Of course artists need to profit
from their work. But as my lawyer explains, over the years copyright has mutated from something
that was supposed to encourage art by guaranteeing a limited profit for artists, into something
that corporations use to control the supply of art, music and ideas - long after the artists
have passed away. It used to be that art would fall into the public domain after its creators had
made money from it for a few years - but nowadays, the public domain is an antique concept.
Corporations have much longer life spans than individuals, so from their point of view, their
copyrights should never expire.

As a result, artists are having a harder time building on art from the past. Culture, which needs
to live and breathe and evolve, is being stored in vaults, released at the discretion of corporate
interests. So this film project is about more than just music, it's about the future of all creativity. As John Oswald once said: "If creativity is a field, then copyright is a fence."

Film is Fascism!

The traditional approach to creating films, especially documentary films, is flawed. A single perspective cannot hope to capture the nuance of an evolving cultural debate. Sure, Point of View is important. But "The Ecstasy of Influence", the participatory nature of digital creativity, begs us to create media that invites input from its audience.

Film is Pollution!

Travelling the globe, running hours of tape, wasting resources - these are a fact of life for documentary filmmakers. This no longer needs to be the case - with digital tools and transmission, we can crowd-source our ideas with silicon instead of carbon.

5) Open Source Cinema!

I am hereby opening this film to everyone. My entire plan, warts and all, can be viewed at the WikiFilm.

Your contributions can be made at the Create section of the site. I invite your participation.

I'm using an open-source filmmaking technique because I believe that this film can’t
be a closed argument, it has to be opened up to the community at large. The argument will continue
to grow with our culture. This is not dogma. This is evolution.