''Good Copy Bad Copy'' (subtitled Good Copy Bad Copy: A documentary about the current state of copyright and culture) is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

in the context of

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

peer-to-peer file sharing Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program th ...

and other technological advances, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. It features interviews with many people with various perspectives on

, including copyright lawyers, producers, artists and filesharing service providers.

Synopsis

A central point of the documentary is the thesis that "creativity itself is on the line" and that a balance needs to be struck, or that there is a conflict between protecting the right of those who own intellectual property and the rights of future generations to create.

Content

Artists interviewed include Girl Talk and Danger Mouse, popular musicians of the mashup scene who cut and remix sounds from other songs into their own (notably the latter artist's '' The Grey Album'' featuring music of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and

Jay Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named the greatest rapper of all time by ''Billboard'' and '' Vibe'' i ...

). The interviews with these artists reveal an emerging understanding of digital works and the obstacle to their authoring

presents. The interviews featured in ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' acknowledge a recent shift towards

user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), emerged from the rise of web services which allow a system's User (computing), users to create Content (media), content, such as images, videos, audio, text, testi ...

, mashup music and video culture. The documentary opens with explaining the current legal situation concerning sampling,

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

and

. ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' documents the conflict between current

law and recent technological advances that enable the sampling of music, as well as the distribution of copyrighted material via

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

search engines such as

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay, commonly abbreviated as TPB, is a free searchable online index of Film, movies, music, video games, Pornographic film, pornography and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank , The Pirate Bay facilitates the connection ...

. MPAA (

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

) CEO

Dan Glickman Daniel Robert Glickman (born November 24, 1944) is an American politician, lawyer, lobbyist, and nonprofit leader. He served as the United States secretary of agriculture from 1995 until 2001 in the Clinton administration. He previously represen ...

is interviewed in connection with the raid by the

Swedish police The Swedish Police Authority () is the national police, police force (''Polisen'') of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under Municipalities of Sweden, local ...

against The Pirate Bay in May 2006. Glickman concedes that piracy will never be stopped, but states that they will try to make it as difficult and tedious as possible. Gottfrid Svartholm and

Fredrik Neij Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij (born 27 April 1978), alias TiAMO, is the co-founder of The Pirate Bay, and the Swedish Internet service provider and web hosting company PRQ. Neij was one of the defendants in The Pirate Bay trial which began on 16 Fe ...

from The Pirate Bay are also interviewed, with Neij stating that The Pirate Bay is illegal according to US law, but not Swedish law. The interviews document attitudes towards

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

, culture and copyright in a number of countries, including the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The situation in

and

is documented in terms of innovative business models that have developed in response to new technological possibilities and changing markets. In

the documentary interviews individuals working within the Nigerian

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

industry, or

Nollywood Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history ...

. Charles Igwe, a film producer in Lagos, is interviewed at length about his views on the Nigerian film industry, the nature of Nigerian films, and copyright in the context of

digital video Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images in the form of analog signals. Digital video comprises ...

technology. Mayo Ayilaran, from the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN), explains the Nigerian government's approach to copyright enforcement. In

the Tecno brega industry and its unique approach to

and sampling is documented, featuring interviews with amongst others Ronaldo Lemos, Professor of Law FGV Brazil. Lemos explains that CDs or recorded music is treated merely as an advertisement for parties and concerts that generate revenue. ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' also includes interview segments with notable copyright activist and academic

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence "Larry" Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American legal scholar and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvar ...

Credits

* Girl Talk, Producer *Dr Lawrence Ferrara, Director of Music Department NYU *Paul V. Licalsi, Attorney Sonnenschein *Jane Peterer, Bridgeport Music *Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan, NYU * Danger Mouse, Producer *

, CEO

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. F ...

* Gottfrid Svartholm, The Pirate Bay *

, The Pirate Bay * Rick Falkvinge,

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by various Political party, political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on Civil and political rights, civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Partie ...

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

* Ronaldo Lemos, Professor of Law Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Brazil *Charles Igwe, Film Producer Lagos Nigeria *Mayo Ayilaran, Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) *Olivier Chastan, VP Records * John Kennedy, Chairman

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

(IFPI) * Shira Perlmutter, Head of Global Legal Policy

(IFPI) *

Peter Jenner Peter Julian Jenner (born 3 March 1943) is a British music manager and a record producer. Jenner, Andrew King and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises. Early career Peter Jenner is the son of Will ...

, Sincere Management * John Buckman, Magnatune Records *Beto Metralha, Producer Belém do Pará Brazil *DJ Dinho, Tupinambá Belém do Pará Brazil

Distribution

Originally created for the Danish National Broadcasting Television network, the film was eventually released for free on the internet as a

BitTorrent BitTorrent is a Protocol (computing), communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a Decentralised system, decentralized manner. The protocol is d ...

download. The filmmakers hope that releasing ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' for free will raise awareness and lead to other local broadcasting networks to show the documentary. The documentary first appeared on The Pirate Bay and then it was officially released under a

Attribution-NonCommercial license on the Blip.tv video sharing site. On 8 May 2008, ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' was shown on Swedish television station

SVT2 SVT2 (SVT Två; commonly referred to as Tvåan), is one of the two main television channels broadcast by Sveriges Television in Sweden. Launched in 1969 by Sveriges Radio, the channel was until the 1990s the most watched in Sweden but now serve ...

. The documentary and an unofficial trailer are available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

References

External links