“What would you say if you found out that our public schools were teaching children that it is not true that it’s wrong to kill people for fun or cheat on tests? Would you be surprised?
“I was. As a philosopher, I already knew that many college-aged students don’t believe in moral facts. While there are no national surveys quantifying this phenomenon, philosophy professors with whom I have spoken suggest that the overwhelming majority of college freshmen in their classrooms view moral claims as mere opinions that are not true or are true only relative to a culture.”
“Severely crippled by Parkinson’s disease, his only option for ending the suffering was to stop eating and drinking. Physicians in most states, including Maryland, where he lived, are barred from helping terminally ill patients who want to die in a dignified way.”
“Just as the Bush administration and the U.S. media re-labelled ‘torture’ with the Orwellian euphemism “enhanced interrogation techniques” to make it more palatable, the governments and media of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance are now attempting to re-brand ‘mass surveillance’ as ‘bulk collection’ in order to make it less menacing (and less illegal). In the past several weeks, this is the clearly coordinated theme that has arisen in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the last defense against the Snowden revelations, as those governments seek to further enhance their surveillance and detention powers under the guise of terrorism.”
“Indigenous peoples have a long history of food systems depending on the traditional knowledge of their local ecosystems. In addition, they play a vital role in preserving and recovering the natural environment that shaped their livelihoods and cultures for centuries, acting as stewards of biodiversity.”
“Slow Food believes that it is senseless to defend biodiversity without also defending the cultural diversity of Indigenous Peoples. The right of peoples to have control over their land, to grow food, to hunt, fish and gather according to their own needs and decisions is fundamental to protect their livelihoods and defend the biodiversity of indigenous breeds and varieties.”
“Pi also opens a window into a more uncharted universe, the one consisting of transcendental numbers, which exclude such common irrationals as square and cube roots. Pi is one of the few transcendentals we ever encounter. One may suspect that such numbers would be quite rare, but actually, the opposite is true. Out of the totality of numbers, almost all are transcendental. Pi reveals how limited human knowledge is, how there exist teeming realms we might never explore.”
“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.”
“Sampling isn’t about ‘hijacking nostalgia wholesale,’ says Mark Ronson. It’s about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward. In this mind-blowingly original talk, watch the DJ scramble 15 TED Talks into an audio-visual omelette, and trace the evolution of ‘La Di Da Di,’ Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s 1984 hit that has been reimagined for every generation since.”
“When is copying flattery, when is it thievery, and when is it sheer genius? In this hour, TED speakers explore how sampling, borrowing, and riffing make all of us innovators.”
Recently, a jury ruled that Robin Thicke and Pharrell were guilty of copyright infringement with the song, “Blurred Lines.” The jury ruled that the song too closely resembled Marvin Gaye’s song, “Got to give it up.”
You can have a listen for yourself with this youtube video that compares the two songs.
This verdict set off a wave of criticism about the ruling for a variety of reasons but putting aside the legal issues, this case raises some interesting questions about art. How do we define originality in art? How do we define copying? At what point has an artist crossed an ethical line? Or in this case, blurred the line between originality and copying? Does the fear of legal action stifle artists’ creativity?
Here’s an article that ties the changing sound of hip hop to the increasing cost of sampling beats and the increased fear of lawsuit.
Here are a couple of links to articles about the recent controversy.
1. What’s Wrong With the ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Ruling
“In the current context, this imitation is a more meaningful sort of infringement than what’s at play in the “Blurred Lines” case, but contemporary copyright law would seem to have less to offer a creator like DJ Mustard, whose bailiwick is everything but the notes. Like him, whole generations of songwriters may remain vulnerable, their innovations implicitly less valuable because no one’s figured out how to adequately write them down.”
2.Why the “Blurred Lines” Copyright Verdict Should Be Thrown Out
“There is no question that Pharrell was inspired by Gaye and borrowed from him; he has freely admitted as much. But, by that standard, every composer would be a lawbreaker. The question is not whether Pharrell borrowed from Gaye but whether Gaye owned the thing that was borrowed. And this is where the case falls apart. For it was not any actual sequence of notes that Pharrell borrowed, but rather the general style of Gaye’s songs. That is why ‘Blurred Lines’ sounds very much like a Marvin Gaye song. But to say that something ‘sounds like’ something else does not amount to copyright infringement.”
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