Another great example of innovation (mostly) free from copyright: music. Modern production techniques, especially in hip-hop and electronic music, often involve

Another great example of innovation (mostly) free from copyright: music. Modern production techniques, especially in hip-hop and electronic music, often involve "sampling" other works, ranging from highly de-contextualized clips (eg vocal manipulation, scratching etc) up to straight ripping entire sections from other songs (eg Eminem's "Sing for the Moment", which samples Aerosmith's "Dream On", both for the instrumental beat and the chorus). That last example may have actually been the result of going through the proper channels to get approval, since it's big artists on either side of it, but generally it's such common practice to sample others' work when making music that suing for copyright claims is extremely rare compared to the prevalence of possibly infringing cases. Sampling to me, and other practices like it, are basically vehicles for creativity and innovation, and it's quite clear that copyright law really only serves to limit this innovation by attempting to restrict usage of creative works. I think Wax Tailor's "Once Upon a Past"[1] sums it up best: > Where a cultural production - at least musically - was full of possibilities, by virtue of being able to freely appropriate from the musical past to make new combinations, and thus new meanings, the story demonstrates that a society "free to borrow and built upon the past" is culturally richer than a controlled one [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYh82fl75oU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYh82fl75oU