I recently had the honour and privilege to be invited to spend a few days with members of the MASHED research group in Oslo, Norway. The initiative, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway, supported by RITMO at the University of Oslo, is a three-year research project involving three full-time post-doctoral fellows and a number of other part-time participants with expertise in a variety of inter-disciplinary fields including copyright law, media, communications, and musicology. As well as this, the group conducts regular workshops with invited guests to share ideas, consider different perspectives and ignite discussion on mashups and remix in a focused environment. For me, it was an absolute pleasure to spend 48 hours talking about nothing but remix with a group of like-minded academic colleagues.

My published research is focused more on remix video than music per say; however, I have been a gigging musician and songwriter for three decades, and my early experiences of remix involved music before I diverged into other media forms, so I was delighted to be able to refocus my research on mashup music specifically during my time with the group.

The project is led by Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen, who has been active in the remix space for a number of years. The post-doc fellows are Ellis Jones and Alan Hui, hailing from the UK and Australia, where they completed PhDs on DIY music and copyright law respectively. The diverse interdisciplinary backgrounds of all involved resulted in highly engaging discussions, offering constantly shifting perspectives based on each speaker’s unique experience. A common interest shared among the participants is music. Most members of the group have written, recorded and performed music in many different forms, from EDM to Jazz, punk to folk, rock to musicals. In addition to the full-time members, we were joined by Irina Eidsvold-Tøien, an actress and law professor, and Miloš Novović, an expert in data privacy, as well as the project research assistant, Eirik Jacobsen. It was a lovely mix of people and opinions. I was just sad we didn’t get to bring our instruments so we could have formed a supergroup and jammed into the wee hours of the morning. However, our discussions on remix and mashups more than made up for that.

The workshop took place at a conference centre in the stunningly beautiful setting of Leangkollen, in the snowy mountains overlooking the famous Oslofjord and the city of Oslo. We were each allocated 2 hours to present our research ideas and answer questions, followed by lively discussions. Inevitably, many conversations circled back to the copyright debate at one point or another, although other facets of remix were also discussed in depth. The focus of this particular project is limited to mashup music, specifically mashups that remix only musical sources, thus excluding political speeches, television series or films, for example (of which there are also countless musical variations). The research is very much directed towards the music industry and its fringes, although video is also a secondary consideration, given that the majority of mashups also have music videos to go along with the music tracks.

MASHED started in August 2018, funded by the Norwegian government through the Young Research Talents scheme, supported by the University of Oslo through its Centres of Excellence scheme. The project is divided into three main areas of focus broadly divided under three headings: aesthetic, political and judicial. Three Work Packages are being developed by the group, focusing on mashup music, copyright and platforms. These areas correspond to considerations of aesthetics, specificity, mashup producer motivations, corporate interests, the legality of mashups, and platform regulation vs actual law. The group are considering the conceptual construction of mashups in relation to real-world consequences. Ragnhild’s focus is on the aesthetics and psychological aspects of mashups; Ellis is interested in the broader context that mashups operate within and the relationship between key stakeholders – the music industry, mashup producers and audiences; and Alan’s focus is on legal interpretations of the term originality, notice-and-takedown systems of various platforms and the development of fundamental rights for mashup producers.

There is an overarching concern that the recently passed Article 17 (formerly Article 13) in EU Copyright Law could lead to the eradication of Mashups altogether, if platforms respond to the directive by erring on the side of legal caution, as mashups are not explicitly protected and in most cases may be considered infringement under current copyright laws. However, copyright can be incredibly complex because each country has their own different laws, even though in the EU attempts are made to harmonise these differences as much as possible through a variety of copyright directives such as the Copyright Term Directive, the Information Society Directive and the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which supersede copyright laws in individual EU countries. The interpretation of these laws is further dependent on international conventions to which all parties are signed, such as the TRIPS agreement and the Berne Convention. The USA has their own independent copyright law, which differs in many ways from the European equivalent, making things even more complicated, given that many of the platforms hosting mashups are based in the USA, while numerous actual mashups are produced and published online from IP addresses in Europe. Clearly territorial disputes are an essential factor to consider in this debate. I found all of this fascinating, as in my own research I have tended to focus primarily on US copyright law, so it was extremely interesting and illuminating to discuss many specific equivalents in European copyright law.

Irina and Miloš, coming from legal backgrounds, naturally brought the conversation back to copyright concerns, which is certainly an important consideration, but can be a limiting factor when attempting to drill down into other aspects of remix. It can be useful to impose a temporary ban on copyright-related perspectives, in order to fully explore the many other facets of remix – aesthetic, semiotic, rhetorical and ideological concerns, for example. My own presentation focused on the formal properties of remix, in terms of medium specificity, with a particular focus on sampling, and subsequently a breakdown of my ideas for an alternative economic system that could potentially balance the right to remix with the rights of artists and authors to profit from their work in networked digital environments. These ideas can be found in greater detail in my book, Reclaiming Critical Remix Video: The Role of Sampling in Transformative Works (Routledge, 2018).

Within each presentation session, probing questions were asked and comments offered on the material presented by the other participants, with reference to our own experiences – in my case, as an online producer of amateur remixed content for over a decade. These were followed by extended discussions between presentations, which continued unabated during our lunch and dinner breaks. The proposed outputs of MASHED include a monograph, jointly-written by the three full-time participants, based on the findings of their surveys and interviews with numerous mashup artists, as well as conference papers and journal articles. There may also be potential  from this project to make useful recommendations to European copyright policy makers in relation to the protection of mashup music specifically and remix more broadly. I am so happy that I was able to meet these wonderful people in person and share our experiences and I hope that we will have the opportunity to collaborate again in the future.

I was grateful also to have had a little time to take in some of the touristic sights and sounds of Oslo before flying back to Bahrain, including the beautiful Opera House, where you can climb up to the rooftop and look out over the fjord and the city lights, and Oslo Cathedral, where I experienced an impromptu live performance by local musicians in a gorgeously atmospheric setting with wonderful acoustics. I also saw the iconic Storting building (Norway’s supreme legislature), the Osvald Hammer monument and the national museum; however, the gallery was just about to close when I got there so unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see Edvard Munch’s The Scream up close. Maybe next time. Being November, it was quite cold outside, but not debilitatingly so. I will definitely be returning to Norway again in the foreseeable future!

More information on this ongoing research project can be found here: https://www.uio.no/ritmo/english/projects/all/mashed/mashups-copyright/research/

Listed below are the bios of each participant in the MASHED research workshop, Nov. 2019.

Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen

Ragnhild is the Associate Professor in Popular Music Studies at the University of Oslo, and the leader of the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED).

One of her main focus areas in the MASHED project is to examine underlying principles and values within the mashup scene in order to delineate the specificity as well as the historical and cultural rootedness of mashups.

Another focus area is to theorize relevant concepts such as creativity, originality, authorship, and ownership from both a theoretical and empirical point of view.

The research project MASHED reflects her enduring interest in music production, digital media, sample-based music, remix- and mashup culture, and authorship and ownership.

Ragnhild is the co-author with Anne Danielsen of the book Digital Signatures: The Impact of Digitization on Popular Music Sound (2016) and has also published articles and book chapters on these topics. She has also a background in music production and songwriting.

Ellis Jones

Ellis Jones is a Postdoctoral Candidate in the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED).

His primary responsibility in the MASHED project is to investigate how the regulatory systems of online platforms impact mashup producers, in terms of the music they make, the ways they distribute it, and the social and cultural implications of this activity.

This role reflects his long-term interest in researching the relationship between music cultures and the internet. Ellis’ PhD thesis, completed at the University of Leeds’ School of Media and Communication, explored the changing nature of “DIY” (do it yourself) music in the age of social media.

He’s also a musician, and have toured and released several albums as lead singer and songwriter of the band Trust Fund.

Alan Hui

Alan is a Postdoctoral Candidate in the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED).

He is a researcher, policy adviser and musician who has spent the last decade at the intersection of music, communications and law. His research interests are in copyright law in relation to mashups and music platforms.

His primary responsibilities in the MASHED project is to examine the ways in which mashup music can be understood in terms of transnational but also localized legal copyright concepts. He will also critically assess the notice-and-takedown systems of internet platforms from a legal perspective in light of the case of mashup music.

Hailing from Australia, Alan completed his copyright law PhD, 99 problems but a riff ain’t one, at the Australian National University. He was an Assistant Director for copyright policy in the Australian Government, where he also advised on telecommunications, broadcasting and digital productivity.

As a musician, Alan is fluent in improvised theatre music and musicals and continues to dabble in jazz and DJing.

Irina Eidsvold-Tøien

Irina is Associate Professor at the Department of Law and Governance at BI – The Norwegian Business School, and an affiliated researcher of the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED).

Her primary responsibility in the MASHED project is to consult and conduct research on copyright concepts, such as transformative use, originality, parody and quotation, across U.S. and Norwegian law.

Irina is an expert in intellectual property and copyright related to performing artists, with expertise in Scandinavian copyright laws.

She completed her doctoral theses at the University of Oslo, in the field of intellectual property and copyright.

She has previously worked as legal director for the Norwegian composer organization TONO, and as an attorney with intellectual property rights and computer law as her main focus area.

Irina also has a bachelor in acting and is still participating in different movies and TV-shows.

Miloš Novović

Miloš has a PhD in law and is an affiliated researcher of the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED).

His primary responsibility in the MASHED project is to consult and conduct research on the regulation of online platforms.

With an LL.M. in intellectual property law from the George Washington University and a PhD in copyright law from the University of Oslo, Miloš has significant experience in researching copyright-related terms found in mass-scale digital agreements.

He believes that any attempts to regulate digital platforms and consumers’ rights must take the application of national laws into account, and therefore actively uses private international law and contract law as a background for his analysis.

Miloš currently works as a senior privacy advisor in a major international telecommunications company.

Eirik Jacobsen

Eirik is a research assistant in the research project Mashup Music, Copyright, and Platform Regulation (MASHED). His primary task in the MASHED project is to transcribe and code the interviews conducted with mashup producers.

Eirik completed his MA thesis in 2017 and has since worked as a musician, music teacher, and research assistant in another RITMO-project.

 

Invited Guest: Owen Gallagher

Dr. Owen Gallagher, SFHEA is the author of Reclaiming Critical Remix Video: The Role of Sampling in Transformative Works (2018), and co-editor of Keywords in Remix Studies (2018) and The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies (2015). Owen received his Ph.D. in Visual Culture from NCAD, Dublin and is Programme Manager of Web Media at Bahrain Polytechnic where he also lectures in film, sound, animation and game design. He has published a number of book chapters, journal articles and conference papers on remix culture, intellectual property and visual semiotics and is particularly concerned with the changing role of copyright in the networked era.