Introduction

Saturday 30 January 2016

Corey Vidal, Star Wars, and Copyright



Creator:
Corey Vidal 

Uploaded to YouTube: October 27, 2008 
Link: https://youtu.be/lk5_OSsawz4 

Corey Vidal is one of the most popular and widely reconized Canadian YouTube stars. He owns his own company, attended the Hollywood premiere of the new Star Wars movie, and has been an active member of the YouTube community since he was in high school. Just glancing at his channel or scrolling through his Facebook page, his overwhelming love of the Star Wars franchise is obvious. He even bought a giant BB-8 droid after the premiere! 

His channel is full of songs and ideas that are under copyright. The Star Wars tribute to John Williams was one of his most controversial (and popular) posts on YouTube. The video was removed for copyright issues, but later re-instated when he won the battle and competently argued fair use. The same thing happened with the Madonna song "4 Minutes". (Fun fact: Madonna encouraged her fans to take her song and use it in their videoes. Afterwards, the company holding the copyright removed all of their property from Youtube...except Vidal's, since he won.) Every copyright battle Vidal has come up against, he has won.

His YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram all pay homage to the art and culture that he loves so much (seriously, the man seems to love Star Wars).

Vidal's creative outputs are a prime example of using copyrighted materials to remix, reimagine, and interact with components that make up our culture. Despite the fact that all of his videos that came under fire promoted the ideas in a positive light, they were still targetted. 

This brings into question the ability to produce art, music, film, and videos in the future. If corporations are cracking down on using material for further creations, aren't they stiffling development, creativity, and inspiration? At what cost?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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