_Copyright maximalists like to contrast copyright with the old system of patronage, when you could only make art if you could convince the Pope or a duke or a king that your art was worthy. Patronage really distorted creative expression, and copyright did indeed promise to decentralize authority over what kind of art was permitted.
_
But the EMI rep’s answer to the Grey Album is patronage. “You must not make this art unless we permit it.” If you work for one of a few big record companies, you can use their legal apparatus to clear the material you want to use in a mashup. Otherwise, your art is illegal and will be censored.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/29/warners_censors_mash.html
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