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"Right to Remix": Initiative for a European Copyright Reform

By EDRi · August 28, 2013

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [“Right to Remix”: Initiative für eine Reform des Urheberrechts in Europa | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.16_Right_to_Remix_Initiative_fuer_eine_Reform_des_Urheberrechts_in_Europa?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130828]

On its website right2remix.org, the German civil rights organisation
EDRi member Digitale Gesellschaft e. V. calls on European policy-makers
to adopt remix rights in the European copyright legislation and invites
everyone to submit a link to his or her favourite remix work.

The time for such an initiative is way over due. We live in an age of
remix. Creativity and culture have always drawn from previous works, but
with the Internet and digital technologies, the creative re-use of works
has been taken to a whole new level. More people are able to edit and
share a greater range of works than ever before. Including a right to
remix has thus become a fundamental requirement for freedom of
expression and free speech in a digital society.

Establishing a right to remix, however, requires some modifications of
the European and national copyright law. Digitale Gesellschaft e. V.
proposes to introduce the right to remix as a combination of three
creative rights:

– The right to change works during usage and to publish the results.
(Transformative usage right(s) with lump-sum compensation, e.g.
background music in mobile phone videos)
– The right to create and to publish remixes of existing works. (Remix
right(s) with lump-sum compensation, e.g. fake trailer for a TV series)
– The right to commercialise remixes, in exchange for appropriate
compensation. (Remix commercialization right(s) subject to compulsory
licensing, e.g. selling music mash-ups on iTunes)

On right2remix.org, supporters are invited to sign a petition and to
share a link to their favourite remix work. By submitting links to their
favourite remix, signatories contribute to making visible how vibrant
current remix culture already is while supporting the call for a
legislative action.

‘Right to Remix’: Initiative for a European Copyright Reform
http://right2remix.org/right-to-remix-initiative-for-a-european-copyright-reform/

Remixer Omid McDonald: “Sample-clearance horror stories from hundreds of artists”

Remixer #15 Omid McDonald: „Horror-Geschichten über Klärung von Samples“

(contribution by Linnea Riensberg – EDRi member Digitale Gesellschaft –
Germany)