Parallel to the Rip: A Remix Manifesto documentary film directed by Brett Gaylor, Open Source Cinema was an interactive web experience from 2007 to 2010 that let users create their own videos online, remix media from their computers, as well as remix other people’s media from places like YouTube and Flickr. Users connected with others by sending personal messages, commenting on remixes, or even joining projects that others created. The project was launched in 2004 as a public beta, and in 2007 launched at the South By Southwest Interactive festival on the Drupal platform.
Gaylor’s Basement Tapes project and feedbacks blossomed into a documentary that was renamed prior to theatrical release to become RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, an “open source” documentary about copyright and remix culture. Created over a period of six years, the film features the collaborative remix work of hundreds of people who have contributed to the Open Source Cinema website, helping to create, according to Gaylor, the “world’s first open source documentary”.
The site closed in 2010 but you can visit time travel and visit a Web Archive version here.