Mashup (digital)

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A digital mashup is a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video and animation drawn from pre-existing sources, to create a new derivative work[1]. Digital text mashups, for example, appear by the thousands every day as users of blogs and online forums copy and paste digital text in juxtaposition to comment on topics of interest, while fan-created video/audio mashups juxtaposing commercially produced video clips with favorite pop songs constitute a major portion of YouTube content. Digital mashups represent a new phase in the re-use of existing works not so much conceptually as in ease of use. The creation of digital media formats such as ASCII text, Redbook audio, JPEG images and MPEG video has made it far easier for potential mashup creators to create derivative works, than was the case in the past, when significant technical equipment and knowledge was required to manipulate analog content.[2] A major contributing factor to the spread of digital mashups is of course the World Wide Web, which provides channels both for acquiring source material and for distributing derivative works, both often at negligible cost[3]. Current widespread practices of creating digital mashups have raised significant questions of intellectual property and copyright, which have been addressed by Lawrence Lessig, among others[4].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Hill and Dudley 2006: Digital mashup described and defined; earliest print reference
  2. ^ Thill, 2008: DJ Spooky comments on the shift from analog to digital mashup
  3. ^ Berman et al: Internet technologies and digital mashup
  4. ^ Lessig 2001

[edit] References