Thought Crime

There’s a lot of debate about remix culture and the creative commons. For those of you unfamiliar with these terms, they deal with creative content licensing and the blurred line of what is acceptable reference and what is copyright infringement upon intellectual property. How does one determine the roots of the creative process in the whirlwind of media influence and propagation? Even if some piece of media is a rip off of another, consider this: imagine where scientific progress would be if physicists had a problem with letting other people use their equations. These scientists get published and recognized for their achievements and move on, allowing others to build upon their thought process. A musician that gets paid for his work shouldn’t be angry with someone using his “beat”, does it really hurt what he’s already done in any way?