Group Project Overview

PROJECT OVERVIEW:
 Twenty years ago, getting published was a major undertaking.  One had to go through tens of gate keepers: editors and publishers, producers and managers.  It took weeks to go from creation to execution and even still, there was little guarantee anyone would have access to it.  Today, we publish things several times every day.  Everything that goes from our brains to the internet is considered published.  With such power at our finger tips, the world of copyright has never before been so controversial.
 The purpose of our project was to present copyright issues in an interesting and creative way that would interest a target audience of 13-30 years old.  Despite the ease at which copyright is broken, very little education is given to these ages.  In truth, copyright is more than under attack, but under change.  One side sees a world where the elite create and the public watch.  The other side believes in a society where creativity builds upon each creation.  The world of fan fiction and remix.  The price of such creativity, however, is the violation of copyright laws.
 Our Frankenstein project metaphorically presents these two sides in a way we hope will allow the users themselves to develop their own opinion.


REMIX:

Remix is a growing industry that doesn't always have a good reputation with higher institutions of learning or with copyright issues. We wanted to address both of these issues in our group project. We created a remix of a classic novel (Frankenstein) that is inviting, educational, and entertaining. In the flash animation video the player gets to choose different remix genres to put together their own monster. The very last thing the player can choose to do is to kill the misunderstood (remix) monster or to allow the creation to run free. This ending is paired with a blog that gives insight and information on remix and copyright to inform the player about the complexities of the issues facing remix creativity. Our purpose in using remix is to renew interest in literature and to inform about the issues surrounding the remix culture.



COPYRIGHT/ FAIR USE:
Often working against the idea of remix is copyright. Copyright is a law that gives the original creator of a work the exclusive rights to reproduce that work, and determine who else may use and reproduce that work. Imagine that you work for hours on a paper for school and post it on Digital Dialogue. When you gather together as a class to critique each others' work, you find that other students in the class have taken parts of your paper and put them into their own paper, some changing it slightly, some using it word for word, but not citing your paper in any way. How would you feel? Most of us seem to agree situations such as this or plagiarism are wrong, so why do we often forget copyright?  Though these two things aren't exactly the same, they do both involve the same principles: using someone else's work--and legally protected work, in the case of copyright--without permission. So to hardcore copyright believers, remix is often an abomination.

The mediator between these two words is fair use. Fair use puts some restriction and limitation on the exclusivity of copyright, allowing for people to have a limited use on things that are copyrighted. This includes uses such as for news reporting, education, research, criticism, and other things. However, just because your use falls into one of these categories doesn't mean you're automatically given free-reigns to pull the fair use card. To fall under fair use, your purpose of using the content must match four categories: 1) Is it being used to make money or any other forms of business or not? 2) It sometimes depends on the kind of copyrighted material actually is. 3) How much/what portion of the work you're actually using. 4) How/how much your use of the copyrighted material will affect its value or how much the owner could potentially make on it.
If your purpose checks out okay with all of these points, then you're most likely good to go. And as we discuss here and portray in our interactive remix of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you can potentially use or remix certain materials for good, even educational purposes--even to educate about copyright.


OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE:

Remix has the potential to be a powerful tool for educators. Remix can present a subject matter that might otherwise be uninteresting to a student. It can generate interest in a topic in a flashy and interesting way. It can serve as a tool for summary, parody, or analysis. Our original goal was to remix the original story of Frankenstein with the goal of generating interest in Mary Shelly's original classic novel. By doing this we hoped to show a positive use for remix.