Copyright

To me, copyright is a money scam. By claiming that something is yours, it is unavailable to anyone else unless they pay some absurd amount of money. I suppose you could contradict that copyright is used so that someone's idea isn't stolen. But the only reason that person is worried about their idea being stolen is because the other person would take the claim and earn money and they wouldn't. It goes right back to a money scam.
        If you think about it, songwriters usually have things that inspire them; objects, ideas, feelings, events, etc. Technically the idea isn't truthfully theirs because they used something to help them build something of their own. Which is just what the movie "Rip! Remix Manifesto" is there to talk about. The movie explains that mixers like Girl Talk are performing illegal actions by taking just a second of a song and combining it with other parts of other songs and creating something that sounds nothing like the original. Now when they do this, it is illegal. When the songwriters use other people's ideas to build their own, it isn't copyright. Why? That was just the question I'd ask you. It doesn't make sense and it is unfair.
           I understand that if someone took the song you created, put their name under it, and re-published it that you would be upset/angered. But if the person took one second of your song, added it with other songs to create a whole new sound and you still charged them hundreds of dollars. That is just down right ridiculous and unacceptable. If anything, you should feel proud that someone wanted to use a bit, even if it is just one second of your song. Charging them $216,000 for that one song is however, not okay. That is like saying, every time you use a road either to drive or to walk, you have to pay $216,000. That's not the same thing you say? Well in a way it is. That road was someone else's idea and creation. You had no part in it, therefore you shouldn't be able to use it without paying money. But it doesn't work that way. In our world, everything that is made and put out into public expected to be used by the public. IF YOU DON'T WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO USE YOUR IDEAS DON'T PUT THEM OUT THERE. Artists frustrate me because they put their songs out there, but then when someone uses their idea, they become infuriated and press charges. I mean, that's like putting a hamburger on a dogs nose and saying don't eat it. I understand the songs are for entertainment purposes, but don't be surprised when some people use your ideas.
        Some of the people who have fallen victim to having their songs stolen claim that their "idea/song/thing" is their intellectual property. That to me is a ridiculous statement. You could compare a math problem to this statement. So the first person answers this question can claim this as their "intellectual property." If anyone else wants to answer this problem, they have to pay $5. But in truth, the person to claim this intellectual property was the first person to solve the problem. So in truth, they others might have come up with the answer before the "intellectual property owner person" would have actually solved it.
        I'm sorry if this is really discombobulated. These are my jumbled thoughts that I have put to paper and I am sorry if they are confusing, but I don't feel like editing them because this issue just bothers me so much. Yeah I know that doesn't make sense, but it is my excuse.
       One last interesting quote of the movie was, "Culture always builds on its past." THAT STATEMENT IS TRUE EVERY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT. You couldn't make a printer without a computer, you couldn't make a pen without something to write on, you wouldn't make a vcr/dvd without a tv. Everything builds on itself. Spoons were obviously made because people needed any easier and cleaner way to eat. Padded chairs were made so that it made sitting more comfortable. If you have never heard of a song before, how could you ever make something that is worthwhile or even halfway decent. You have to have heard songs to gain the knowledge of sounds that work and those that don't. You have to take from other ideas before you can make your own!