While this Harrison Ford parody trailer is not as seamless as the James Bond video we watched in class they both make a good point echoing one of the deciding factors in the 2 Live Crew case. 2 Live Crew was almost sued for using large parts of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman. One of the deciding factors in the case was that 2 Live Crew used Roy Orbison’s material to make something new.
In this Harrison Ford trailer the creators used a montage of different snippets from Ford’s numerous movies in which his wife and children are threatened. The creators are using past works to create something new and creative. They are not saying that they had anything to do with his movies. They are using Harrison Ford’s movies to use this relatively new technology of private, normal individuals creating media products that can be distributed to a global audience.
If copyright laws became so strict that people could not even sample past works technologies that put the power of the mass media in the hands of normal people would struggle to survive. This regulation would do nothing but to shut off an important source of creative possibilities. In the end, as long as artists are using past material to create something new and to further innovation I do not believe that these past works are being abused.
Here is the link for the video.