You are alive during the fastest period of cultural evolution in human history. The internet allows billions of people to create, modify, mash up and share. Trillions of pieces of information instantaneously, simultaneously, collaboratively. In order for culture to evolve, it requires small, indivisible units of cultural transmission. Like cells themselves, these are then reproduced, refined and remade into something new. Everything is a remix in this cultural evolution. What if I told you that in Australia, this new way of sharing, communicating, memeifying, remixing is illegally. Well, under Australian copyright law, it is. And no one knows it. So no one cares. Many countries, including the US, have a fair use provision in their copyright law, which allows a range of uses, as long as they don't take revenue away from copyright owners or harm them in other ways. The big thing about fair uses, we don't need a new, specific exception every time some new technology or activity comes along. All kinds of creative acts are permissible as long as you're being fair. In Australia, our copyright law is the opposite. Unless the law specifically says you can do something, you can't. Full stop. But many of us do anyway. Copyright law is designed to encourage creativity, not stifle it. In Australia, we've got it wrong. We do have fair dealing provisions in our law. Fair dealing allows the use of other work when you're reporting the news, doing research or study, satirizing or parodying, formally critiquing the content or giving legal advice. Otherwise, you cannot reproduce or modify anything. If you share these Photoshop pictures on your Facebook wall, only one of them is legal in Australia. If you guess the one on the left, then you're correct. The one on the left is satirical and a parody. The one on the right is just funny, but illegal. The f***. Here are some other things that are illegal under Australian copyright law. Making your own Mario Brothers costume? That's a breach. Playing music off your iPod out of funeral? That's a breach. Singing case on in public? That's a breach. Trading a search engine in Australia will be impossible. That's a breach. While transferring a DVD you own to watch on your tablet is an offense, transferring a VHS tape is okay. Why? Because the law specifically says so. Yep, the law actually says video tape. Video tape. Tape tape tape. In Australia we have Beatermax Laws for Google World. This is not about parasy. This is about culture. Parasy is about stealing. Culture is about creation. Prior to last century culture was participatory. Everyone created, everyone consumed. People in turn spun their own stories, seeing their own songs from others they had seen and heard. But recorded media changed all that. The last century saw culture become a product, something that was packaged, sold, consumed, and thrown away. But over the last 15 years thanks to the internet and a massive drop in the cost of technology, participating in culture at a high level is possible. These silos for creativity are no longer the copy shops and campfires, but are the web platforms and internet forums that breed extraordinary works every minute of the day. These digital places breed ferocious creativity and encourage the collision of ideas, which create many works of culture that aren't made for commercial purposes that made by amateurs for the love of it. Thanks to the internet, culture is once again about participation and not about being passive. It's nothing new for digital natives. It's just the way we tell stories. Everyone is a creator now. So as creators of digital culture, what can we do? Well, right now, Australian copyright law is a under review. And it's important to show our leaders just how creative we can be. Join the creationist as we now. Sign a petition to bring fair use to Australia. And post an example of transformative work that you've created for non-commercial use. It could be anything. Videos, pictures, songs, mashups, lollcats, tweets, three printing jokes, montages, collages, anything. Show our leaders that creativity is not a crime. Creationistas.com For more examples of copyright hypocrisy, click on the videos below or go to creationistas.com.