Remix and Remixability- Response to Lev Manovich's article

I agree with most of the author's points.  Remixing, while not an entirely new concept- almanacs, mixed martial arts, the Beatles' "Revolution 9",  and documentaries, to name a few, have been around for years- is being made increasingly easier and accessible to just about anyone with an internet connection and a freeware editing program.  Probably my favorite recent example in music is Girl Talk, a DJ who takes classic rock, contemporary pop, rap, hip hop, r&b, just about anything and everything, and mixes them all into something all its own.  YouTube is also a stronghold for amateur remixing with examples like the Obama: Never Gonna Give You Up video and countless music videos created from favorite anime shows or video games.

Some things I don't agree with, however, is that a world of complete modularity and public domain would be the best thing.  Ideas like Xanadu and Web 2.0 have been floating around almost since the internet became a practical reality, and I think these ideas are great in theory.  The issue I have is that you can't expect professionals to spends weeks or months or even years producing a work and then have it thrown automatically into a creative commons pool.  Tremendous amounts of money would be lost and the industry could turn into a completely amateur field with not a lot of money coming in, because no one is making any.  With that said, however, I do believe that public access will become the norm and even necessary in coming years and copyright laws will change, perhaps allowing works to go up for public domain after X amount of years under copyright making money.  Imagine if after 10-15 years a movie had to release it's licenses and put it in creative commons.  Most of the money a movie makes comes from ticket and initial DVD sales anyways, so this is a possibility.

Remixing is a massive part of our culture now, and will only get stronger.  I liked this article for the most part and agree that remixing needs to find its proper and permanent place in our modern digital society.