Mash Some Tunes, Win a Car

Audi and David Bowie are embracing the mash-up culture that brought us The Grey Album with a contest: remix two Bowie songs and put yourself in the running to win an Audi TT.

The buzz in the music business is all about mash-ups. You've read about them, you've heard them, now it's time to create your own. A mash-up is a song created from parts of other songs, "mashed-up." Mix and match songs to create something new. That's what you'll do here with any track from David Bowie's "Reality" CD and any other favorite Bowie track. Mix, match, mash-up and make something new.

Audi even has a pretty cool commercial comparing their progress to that of publishing technology -- from calligraphic script, through movable type, to the web. Sad, then, that they don't seem willing to permit the song-mashers to share their creations beyond the contest. From the rules:

By entering the Contest, each entrant acknowledges and agrees that: (a) Sponsors are granting entrants a limited, non-exclusive license to use the Reality Masters and Bowie Masters in connection with, and solely as a part of, the Contest and then only for the duration of the Contest, (b) entrants shall have no right, title or interest in the Masters, and (c) any use of the Masters other than as permitted by these Official Rules will constitute a violation of the Contest Rules and may constitute copyright infringement.

Copyright shouldn't have this lock on culture. It needs to evolve in step with the technology it regulates.

(Aaron beat me to this one Copyfight)