DJ Danger Mouse recently created a remix of Jay-Z's The Black album and the Beatles White album called, you guessed it, the Grey Album, that has been receiving critical acclaim. Only 3000 copies are out there in circulation, but due to it's skyrocketing popularity on the file sharing networks it has been turning heads..at EMI. They own the rights to the White Album.
Unfortunately, DJ failed not only to pay for the use of the White Album, he didn't even ask for permission to use it. EMI sent him a cease and desist order to promptly make sure the 3,000 albums were destroyed at the gaggle of retailers where they are being sold.
| As news of EMI's demand spilled online this week, music-industry and intellectual-property activists went ballistic. It's a sign of everything that's wrong in the American copyright system, they contend. And besides, by releasing an a capella version of The Black Album, Jay-Z and his record label, Roc-a-Fella, practically begged DJs to pair his rhymes with new beats. So why should a remixer now suffer for answering the call? "It's a great example of our two-tiered copyright system," said Glenn Otis Brown, executive director of Creative Commons, a Web-based copyright-licensing group. "Labels are saying, 'If you do (a remix) on the underground scene, it's OK. But if it's so compelling that people trade it all over the Internet, then we're going to sue you.'" Not so, says EMI. "This is something we do as a matter of course," said an EMI representative, "whenever we're made aware of copyright violations."
Once a musician has released a song commercially, Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain notes, other acts are free to perform and record their own versions of the song -- as long as they pay the songwriter a standard royalty. That's why so many bands are able to play their takes on tunes like "Take the A Train" or "Louie, Louie." Remixing and sampling are a different matter, however. There is no freedom to beat-match. And there are no set licensing fees. So while the Beatles' tunes have been recorded by thousands of bands, their song catalog has been notoriously off-limits to hip-hop and dance-music producers' manipulations. (The one exception to the rule, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, came out before the rules of sampling were clearly established.) |
So now we have the rest of the story. Is creativity being blocked by using copyrights as a means of control? Or are the laws just being used to ensure payment to the artist? It is really bizarre that the Grey album is in such a grey area. DJ Danger Mouse didn't pay EMI, but he can't, it doesn't appear that hip hop style artists are able to join the country club. So he didn't ask.
Hopefully, the popularity of a work like the Grey Album, that is spreading like wildfire on the Internet, will cause this issue to come to the forefront for review. Meanwhile, the labels, against all logic, are hell bent to destroy any copies of what would be a hit record for them.
When will labels like EMI realise that they are their own worst enemy? Why don't they want to sell this extremely popular album? What will it take for EMI to grasp, that what they are doing is counter productive?
Rolling Stone called the Grey Album 'the ultimate remix record" the Boston Globe said it was the 'most creatively captivating" album of the year. Yet, the reporters and news outlets that wanted to review the album had to obtain it illegally from filesharing networks. Something is really wrong with this picture.
Special thanks to Downhill Battle for helping to bring this issue out in the open for all to see and discuss.
Source: Wired
