So Amazing, So Illegal 492
Jamie gave me a nice writeup of a mashup where the writer shares some random youtube mashup video that you maybe have seen before called the Mother of all Funk Chords. It's a pretty amazing artistic achievement and probably worth at least a quick glance of your time. But the larger point should be taken seriously. He says "If your reaction to this crate of magic is 'Hm. I wonder how we'd go about suing someone who "did this" with our IP?' instead of, 'Holy crap, clearly, this is the freaking future of entertainment,' it's probably time to put some ramen on your Visa and start making stuff up for your LinkedIn page. Because, this is what your new Elvis looks like."
Nice link, not (Score:4, Informative)
FFS, people, trim those goddamn YouTube links! This is all you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA [youtube.com]
Re:Um, what? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But without copyright protections... (Score:3, Informative)
Indeed, and also why nobody produces any cultural products in countries without aggressive copyright enforcement.
Future generations will look back on this time in history and wonder why the recording industry was so hot to protect top 40 crap-pop.
Re:Mashups (Score:5, Informative)
I don't like them much either, but this isn't like, "Michael Jackson Thriller vs. Enya Watermark" or some other odd thing... if you watch TFV(ideo), he takes a collection of single-instrument tracks from other YouTube videos and mixes them all together to make a Funk song. It's pretty neat, though I have to confess to liking funk.
Re:Mashups (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nice link, not (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Um, what? (Score:2, Informative)
I agree. It seems that the author of this article just started listening to music.
I'm assuming the author has never heard the sounds of The Avalanches, MC Hawkins - Quake Master (Not the acclaimed physicist), or even seen a youtube poop.
If Christopher Columbus wants to say he discovered the Americas, let him.
You thought wrong (Score:5, Informative)
I thought if one is using 10secs (I'm unsure if there is a real number or duration) of any video, song, or literature it is not 'reproducing' or distributing IP or copyright, but Fair Use, and therefore not against a civil or criminal law.
You thought wrong. This is commonly thrown around /. as if it's gospel, but the fact is there's no magic number that qualifies something as fair use.
Traditionally, the fair use defense is based on four factors, one of which is the "amount" or "substantiality" of the work that's infringed. That language is as murky as it sounds. The movie 12 Monkeys got in trouble for showing less than a minute of a weird looking chair, and if things hadn't been worked out, it could have been enjoined from distribution. If you're unlucky enough to have infringed the "heart" of the work, even if it's only 5% overall, you might not have a fair use defense.
There are a number of cases that involve sampling, and the way things have gone, it seems that the current consensus is "license it, or don't sample." Hell, even if you do license, you might not be off the hook - remember the whole "Bittersweet Symphony" debacle?
It's unfortunate, but this is the current state of things.
Re:Um, what? (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
EMERGENCY BROADCAST NETWORK (Score:5, Informative)
Don't get me wrong, I think this kind of stuff is AWESOME. But it's not novel.
Emergency Broadcast Network was doing this kind of stuff in the early 90s, and released a record, Telecommunication Breakdown, that was all made in this style. They even wrote software to do it, and U2 had them do the ZooTV footage for one of their 1990s tours (including the alternate "Numb" video with machinery.) There are videos online. Their work was also a critique of the role of media, marketing, broadcast media, etc., so there was an extra political layer in there.
That said, I think the remixing of video samples in the same way that we remixed audio samples in the past is definitely an obvious (yet delicious) advance in the way we make music... or video... or art or whatever you want to call it.
Here's a link to get you started on EBN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_Network
Re:Lawyers? We don't need no stinkin lawyers for t (Score:3, Informative)
I thought if one is using 10secs (I'm unsure if there is a real number or duration) of any video, song, or literature it is not 'reproducing' or distributing IP or copyright, but Fair Use, and therefore not against a civil or criminal law.
Fair Use is about HOW a copyrighted work is used, not simply HOW MUCH of it is used.
If the source material is readily identifiable, and it is not clearly apparent that the re-user is engaging in a protected action like academic study, critical review, or parody, then the odds are pretty good that in the eyes of the law it will be considered a derivative work, and a copyright violation if not properly licensed.
Adding the video aspect of this work actually makes it MORE likely that the source material will be identifiable. You probably wouldn't be able to tell from 2-second audio-only snippet that a drum pattern was originally performed by Bernard Purdie, but when the audio is accompanied by the video footage of him actually playing it in one of his instructional videos, it gets a lot more identifiable.
Ummmm, no. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Um, what? (Score:3, Informative)
Nickelback recycles their songs. Several years ago someone mathematically picked apart their songs and showed they are all the same.
I can't seem to find it, but I did find this example from the wayback machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20070928171441/http://www.thewebshite.net/nickelback.htm [archive.org]
Re:Um, what? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Um, what? (Score:1, Informative)
Hate to break it to you, but that is called a "Chord Progression", and there a relatively few chord progressions that are used in almost all western music. The most common progression follows the Circle of Fifths (or Fourths, depending on how you read it). See Chord progression (wikipedia) [wikipedia.org]
Worth watching. (Score:4, Informative)
The one link in the summary isn't the only thing this guys did. This isn't a fluke, this is a true artistic talent. These mashup artists are getting better and better. Listen to the whole set then you'll be in a better position to appreciate and critique. I realize there will be those that do not like it, but if you have a shred of appreciation for music you'll have to recognize the talent. BTW track 8 is the guy explaining the project.
Track 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA [youtube.com]
Track 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAvS0pc9NIw [youtube.com]
Track 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBfj6khrG4 [youtube.com]
Track 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JffZFRM3X6M [youtube.com]
Track 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXulsZpu72E [youtube.com]
Track 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i88CKr6Shn4 [youtube.com]
Track 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vch-Z9ccHTk [youtube.com]
Track 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0gYbqOZXQ [youtube.com]
Re:Um, what? (Score:3, Informative)
If you think you can't listen to DJ music in public or at a party... uh? There are so many people who do so many crazy parties doing this kind of music live I can only name a few big ones: Mick Boogie, KutMaster Kurt, Kid Koala, Kruder & Dorfmeister. Hell, take it back a decade or two and you have Afrikaa Bambata, Mix Master Mike, X-Ecutioners. It's not exactly anything new, and people have been boppin' to it for quite some time fool
Re:Um, what? (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. A Nickelback is a football term. Typically on defense you'll have what is called a "7 man front" comprised of either 4 defensive linemen and 3 linebackers (4-3 base defense, think Chicago Bears) or reverse, 3 defensive linemen and 4 linebackers (think Baltimore Ravens). Since you can have 11 men on the field at a time, that leaves you with 4 players, called "Defensive Backs". Typically two cornerbacks, one on either side of the field ~ 5 yards off the line of scrimmage covering the wide receivers, and 2 safeties, again, on either side of the field, anywhere from 10-20 yards off the line of scrimmage. Largely they're out there for pass coverage, but safeties will sneak up into the "box" (the 7 man front) to give you "8 men in the box".
Okay, so what does this have to do with anything? Well - if you suspect a play might be a passing down, you can trade one of your linebackers out for an additional defensive back. So now you have a 6 man front, but you have 5 defensive backs. That fifth defensive back is referred to as the "Nickel Back", because the formation is referred to as a "Nickel Package".
As an FYI, if you absolutely positively KNOW it's a passing down, you can opt to trade yet another linebacker for another defensive back, giving you 6 defensive backs, and that is (predictably) called a "Dime Package". That last defensive back could be referred to as the Dime Back, but that term is rarely used.
Re:Awesome. (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, there are a bunch of "free music" sites. Also if you haven't heard about it yet, check out Creative Commons [creativecommons.org]. They do open-source-like licenses for media and have taken care of all the hard work, you just pick the variant that works best for you and post your content somewhere.
Re:Um, what? (Score:4, Informative)