Negativland controversy leads RIAA to amend rules

dave has sent in a followup story about the RIAA and Negativland following the recent story. Click below for the full text of the article.

[ Wed., September 2, 3:01 AM EDT ] Negativland Outcry Leads RIAA To Amend Pressing Plant Rules In a surprising response to a furor raised by underground collage band Negativland, the group's fans and its supporters, the Recording Industry Association of America announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to amend its CD Plant Guidelines to account for the existence of "fair use" material on CDs. The decision to amend the plant guidelines was an about-face for the RIAA, which had previously criticized Negativland for questioning the original guidelines. "The RIAA has received your e-mails on sampling and our CD Plant Guidelines -- some thoughtful and persuasive, others offensive and uninformed," read the press release from RIAA president and CEO Hilary Rosen that was addressed to "Fans of Negativland." "Unfortunately, Negativland, and many of you, believe that our CD Plant Good Business Practices -- formalized earlier this year into specific guidelines for CD plants to recognize pirated product -- has had the unintended effect of prejudicing the group's ability to get their album pressed," the release continued. "As an organization that has worked tirelessly to protect freedom of expression, we are gravely concerned about this perception. Our objective in issuing the CD Plant Guidelines has been to stop piracy, not artistic expression. Accordingly, the RIAA has amended its CD Plant Guidelines in response to your concerns."

As a result, for the first time in nearly a month, Negativland's co-leader Mark Hosler had nothing negative to say about the RIAA. "I'm amazed. It's a really incredible thing," Hosler said Tuesday night of the memo, issued after the music industry trade organization received an unspecified amount of e-mail and letters from irate Negativland fans.

"This is really the first time they've acknowledged that 'fair use' is a gray area in the copyright law," said a giddy Hosler in response to the RIAA amendment. Negativland have long professed their belief that their collage-like appropriation of copyright-protected material is covered under a 'fair use' provision of copyright law that protects their "transformative" works of art.

"The fact that an organization that represents the major labels is coming out and saying it's not a black-and-white issue, as far as Negativland is concerned, is unprecedented," added Hosler.

According to the amended RIAA guidelines, "some recordings presented for manufacture may contain -- as part of an artist's work -- identifiable 'samples' or small pieces of other artists' well-known songs. In some instances, this sampling may qualify as 'fair use' under copyright law, and in other instances, it may constitute copyright infringement. There are no hard and fast rules in this area and judgments on both 'fair use' and indemnification must be made on a case-by-case basis."