Movie Premier: The Big Ouch
I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the nature of copyright law in America today...

It seems that every bit of creativity in my life is a possible violation of copyright law. Here is my super cool "BIG OUCH" video that I cobbled together with my nifty iMovie software (paid for in full).

I inserted various video snatched from the Web and added some music to help it all flow together. It's not all that impressive to watch but it was fun and enjoyable and most importantly I LIKE IT.

Now I'm not really wanting to go on and on about the way that copyright law has me frustrated but instead I want to showcase my humble attempt at digital video manipulation.

However, I will mention that since the advent of the Web the simple, innocent creations of the amatuer home "artist" can now be published and available for the entire world. Prior to the Web there was not a method to distribute creations that "borrowed" heavily from copyrighted work without a great ammount of resources. Now, it's quite the opposite. It's easy to get many types of creative work distributed quickly, cheaply and efficiently.

MEANING?
What does this mean? Well, it means that my little video is a potential target of trial lawyers today where it would not have been 5 years ago. In the past if I had done this same thing it would have been on a VHS tape and the only people who would have seen it would be unsuspecting friends over at the house for a visit. Now, the distribution is much cheaper than say making multiple copies of the VHS tape and mailing it out to friends but that does not mean that the viewing is the same. A great quote I heard the other day (can't remember where from) said something like, "In the past everyone was said to get 15 minutes of fame, with the web everyone gets perpetual fame among 15 people." How true this is.

It also means that just about anything I do will give me an excuse to bitch about the dismal state of copyright law in America.

So just watch the dern film.

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