I just saw some incredible videos involving my favorite video game: Street Fighter.
Hang on, because I want to tell you various things about this experience.
I've been playing Street Fighter steadily ever since Street Fighter II Turbo hit the Super Nintendo Entertainment System way back when. For a while there I played it with a passion, every... single... day. I figure that Street Fighter is my chess, I will strive to play better and with more strategy every single time I get the chance to play it, 'til death do us part. I can picture myself, arthritis willing, playing Street Fighter until I am too old to hold a gamepad. Naturally, I know the game rather well, what I mean to say is that I know the language of it's strategy. And, I can recognize another player's ability by the way he or she makes the game do amazing stuff within the limited scope it provides; it's a videogame, remember?
So I saw some videos of a team of players, Team Whales, 
playing Street Fighter latest version; Third Strike. I downloaded the video using BitTorrent. It was amazing to for me to watch. Because for me, a person that knows the language and "limits" of what the game should do, the players proficiency seems nothing short of miraculous. Also I instantly fell in love with the music used in the video. In fact I'm listening to it while I write this. The song is by M-Flo (warning: site is in japanese, but is mostly understandable), and the title of the song is Miss You (Just thought you'd want to know.)
But as I watched the video I started thinking; asking myself actually. Does Capcom, the company that produces this video game, allow this sort of thing? I mean can I legally offer for download a video of myself playing Street Fighter? Is that covered under fair use rights? I can only guess that is indeed covered under fair use.
But, let's say, for a moment, that the answer is no. That you cannot tape, cut and remix a video of yourself performing what some people (like me) may call a work of art. Simply because the company that provides the medium for you to perform does not grant you that right. Suppose that Capcom started to sue every person that produces or watches a video of someone else playing Street Fighter; would people like Team Whales continue playing... With the passion they so evidently show now?
Lawrence Lessig has an interesting name for the kind of people like Team Whales and others that, together, make this sort of work possible: The Remix Culture.
What is so special about the remix culture is that technology in recent times has increased tremendously the ability for individuals to copy, cut, paste, mix, remix, burn and publish any kind and amount of data / information that is available to them.
On the other hand, traditional companies that have made their living making remixes, like Disney, are pushing for more and more limits in the way of laws that restrain the individual from becoming a part of the remix culture.
Such fools...
The Information Soldier very reason for being is the protection of your right to be part of the remix culture...
