GOOD COPY BAD COPY - a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture

Good Copy Bad Copy is a documentary about copyright law and the doctrine of fair use. Featuring interviews with Lawrence Lessig, MPAA and RIAA spokespeople, and a mashup artist from Pensylvania called "GirlTalk", the film examines the current state of law at the intersection of copyright (the corporations) and culture (content producers). It mainly looks at issues surrounding sampling in music culture, and the (legal and cultural) history of the music industry. There's an interesting section in the film which looks at the infamous "Grey" album created by DJ Dangermouse (one half of Gnarls Barkley) when he mixed together Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album. It also features interviews with the founders of Sweden's Pirate Party, which "...strives to reform laws regarding intellectual property, including copyright, patent and the protection of design. [The party's] agenda also includes support for a strengthening of the right to privacy (such as private property and private information), both on the Internet and in everyday life."

The film is free to download and is distributed using the BitTorrent network model (the .torrent file is available at the PirateBay).

Here's the trailer:


There are a few scenes which didn't make it into the final cut over at blip.tv...

I can put the full movie on a DVD if anyone's interested in a class screening maybe? Let me know in the comments...