"Copying Is Not Theft" Animated to Match Jonathan Mann Performance

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I liked Jonathan Mann's performance of "Copying Isn't Theft", but it was not an exact match to Nina Paley's animation. Here I've simply tweaked the video using Kino to match up the lipsync to Mann's singing. This is maybe my 2nd or 3rd Kino edit, but I don't think it's too awfully bad.

As the credits say, the work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.

The original animation version has much higher production values -- mine is just a quick mock-up.

And there is a video of Jonathan Mann's original soundtrack.

And here's a video of Nina Paley singing this version of the song a capella.

Couldn't find the exact original that Jonathan Mann used -- it might not be on YouTube, but the version above is very similar. Paley rearranged the words slightly (to "Copying is not theft" instead of "Copying isn't theft"), and Mann added the "Ah-ooh". So his version can't really be matched to Nina's video without some edits, which is why I created this. I just wanted to see what it would look like.

I find it remarkable how controversial this simple observation is -- it's a fundamental property of information products that they cannot be "stolen" in the same way that material things can. This does not mean there are not reasonable discussions to be had about remuneration for intellectual labor, but to compare copying to stealing is to fundamentally confuse the issue -- and of course some very powerful political lobbies have been trying to do just that. Which is the reason why Paley created this song and this video in the first place.

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