Speaking of sampling
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Grey Tuesday" <greytuesdayone@downhillbattle.org>
> Date: Fri Mar 5, 2004 3:47:22 PM America/New_York
> To: listdiva@culturekitchen.com
> Subject: Grey Tuesday - Where next.
>
> This is probably the last email you'll receive from us. If you don't
> have time to read it, please check out these two links:
> http://www.jayzconstructionset.com/
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
>
>
> Grey Tuesday folks,
>
> More than a week after the event, the Grey Tuesday protest keeps
> getting bigger. There's been press coverage in the New York Times,
> NME, the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, and this weekend
> there's going to be two pieces running on MTV. If you don't already
> feel like you participated in something genuinely new and amazing,
> search for Grey Tuesday on Google News. The Grey Album is fun to
> listen to and the protest is the first of its kind, so it was the
> perfect occasion for press to talk about copyright law and how the
> major labels use it to stifle creativity. But after a huge success
> like this, the question is always "where next?" This is a long
> email, but please keep reading. If we make the right moves we can
> keep this issue in the news and convert Grey Tuesday momentum into a
> force for permanent reform.
>
> FIRST:
> http://www.jayzconstructionset.com/
> "The Jay-Z Construction Set is a toolkit with all of the necessary
> software and raw materials to create a new remix of Jay-Z's Black
> Album. It includes nine different variations on the Black Album, over
> 1200 clip art images, and a couple hundred meg of classic samples and
> breaks." It even comes with Audacity and GIMP, open source software
> for making your own remix and cover art. Thanks to a hot tip from
> Downhill Battle this new kind of "active" compilation is already
> bursting into the mainstream, which is exactly where it should be.
> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485526/20040303/
> jay_z.jhtml?headlines=true
>
> The JCS is nine different versions of the Black Album all in one
> place, and it's a simple, concrete way to make an important
> philosophical point: our culture flourishes when people engage it and
> make it their own. If you have a website or blog, please give it a
> link.
>
> SECOND:
> We can and should follow up Grey Tuesday's defiance with a concrete
> and reasonable proposal for 'legalizing' sample based music. A
> compulsory licensing system similar to the one used for cover songs
> could easily create a legal space in which sample-based music could
> thrive. Certainly, legislative change inside the U.S. is unrealistic
> in the short term. And, ideally, deeper reforms would be made that
> gave musicians the same bureaucracy-free rights to make collage that
> visual artists enjoy. But if we could point to a simple and workable
> system for compulsory sample licensing, we could make it crystal
> clear, every time this issue arises, that the major labels don't have
> a leg to stand on. Downhill Battle is considering creating an
> organization that would fashion a compulsory licensing scheme and
> stand up for the rights of sample-based musicians. If you have
> experience, connections, or legal expertise that you could contribute
> to this project, please let us know. ** Please don't post about this
> on your blog, or write about it anywhere,
> since we're not sure how this will proceed **
>
> THIRD:
> One of the most important parts of the Downhill Battle project has
> been our interview series.
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/interviews/sage_francis.html
> We've spoken with prominent independent musicians and independent
> label owners about filesharing, the major label system, and the future
> of music scenes. The interviews are extremely important: the RIAA is
> able to issue all kinds of ridiculous statements about DJs "stealing
> music" but no one is paying attention to what independent label owners
> and musicians have to say. If you'd like to interview prominent
> figures in underground hip hop and electronic dance music, please
> contact us. Our site gets quite a bit of traffic; the interviews you
> do will get read. You'll need to be a good writer (send us some stuff
> you've written).
>
> FINALLY:
> Downhill Battle is focused on ending the major label monopoly, and
> we're on a roll. If you want to see a music business where sampling
> is legal, where record labels don't bribe radio stations, and where
> musicians can get their music into the mainstream without signing a
> terrible contract or compromising their sound and their principles,
> this project could honestly be the best place to put your time and
> energy.
>
> Here is our get involved page, where you can tell us where you are,
> what music you're into, and what skills you have. This is the best
> way we have to keep track of people who want to help, and so far it's
> worked pretty well.
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
>
> ESPECIALLY:
> We *always* need help with design, both web, and print. Many of the
> Grey Tuesday sites were very well designed, so we know some of you
> have skills. Our upcoming projects include a campaign to get
> independent labels to sign off the RIAA members list (called
> "Shrinking the RIAA") and several design parodies. Just reply to this
> email if you want to do design work. Remind us what your website is,
> and send URLs for other stuff you've done, if you can.
>
> OK. That's it, and thanks again!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Holmes, Nicholas, and Rebecca
> and the Downhill Battle team
>
>
>
>
> From: "Grey Tuesday" <greytuesdayone@downhillbattle.org>
> Date: Fri Mar 5, 2004 3:47:22 PM America/New_York
> To: listdiva@culturekitchen.com
> Subject: Grey Tuesday - Where next.
>
> This is probably the last email you'll receive from us. If you don't
> have time to read it, please check out these two links:
> http://www.jayzconstructionset.com/
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
>
>
> Grey Tuesday folks,
>
> More than a week after the event, the Grey Tuesday protest keeps
> getting bigger. There's been press coverage in the New York Times,
> NME, the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, and this weekend
> there's going to be two pieces running on MTV. If you don't already
> feel like you participated in something genuinely new and amazing,
> search for Grey Tuesday on Google News. The Grey Album is fun to
> listen to and the protest is the first of its kind, so it was the
> perfect occasion for press to talk about copyright law and how the
> major labels use it to stifle creativity. But after a huge success
> like this, the question is always "where next?" This is a long
> email, but please keep reading. If we make the right moves we can
> keep this issue in the news and convert Grey Tuesday momentum into a
> force for permanent reform.
>
> FIRST:
> http://www.jayzconstructionset.com/
> "The Jay-Z Construction Set is a toolkit with all of the necessary
> software and raw materials to create a new remix of Jay-Z's Black
> Album. It includes nine different variations on the Black Album, over
> 1200 clip art images, and a couple hundred meg of classic samples and
> breaks." It even comes with Audacity and GIMP, open source software
> for making your own remix and cover art. Thanks to a hot tip from
> Downhill Battle this new kind of "active" compilation is already
> bursting into the mainstream, which is exactly where it should be.
> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485526/20040303/
> jay_z.jhtml?headlines=true
>
> The JCS is nine different versions of the Black Album all in one
> place, and it's a simple, concrete way to make an important
> philosophical point: our culture flourishes when people engage it and
> make it their own. If you have a website or blog, please give it a
> link.
>
> SECOND:
> We can and should follow up Grey Tuesday's defiance with a concrete
> and reasonable proposal for 'legalizing' sample based music. A
> compulsory licensing system similar to the one used for cover songs
> could easily create a legal space in which sample-based music could
> thrive. Certainly, legislative change inside the U.S. is unrealistic
> in the short term. And, ideally, deeper reforms would be made that
> gave musicians the same bureaucracy-free rights to make collage that
> visual artists enjoy. But if we could point to a simple and workable
> system for compulsory sample licensing, we could make it crystal
> clear, every time this issue arises, that the major labels don't have
> a leg to stand on. Downhill Battle is considering creating an
> organization that would fashion a compulsory licensing scheme and
> stand up for the rights of sample-based musicians. If you have
> experience, connections, or legal expertise that you could contribute
> to this project, please let us know. ** Please don't post about this
> on your blog, or write about it anywhere,
> since we're not sure how this will proceed **
>
> THIRD:
> One of the most important parts of the Downhill Battle project has
> been our interview series.
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/interviews/sage_francis.html
> We've spoken with prominent independent musicians and independent
> label owners about filesharing, the major label system, and the future
> of music scenes. The interviews are extremely important: the RIAA is
> able to issue all kinds of ridiculous statements about DJs "stealing
> music" but no one is paying attention to what independent label owners
> and musicians have to say. If you'd like to interview prominent
> figures in underground hip hop and electronic dance music, please
> contact us. Our site gets quite a bit of traffic; the interviews you
> do will get read. You'll need to be a good writer (send us some stuff
> you've written).
>
> FINALLY:
> Downhill Battle is focused on ending the major label monopoly, and
> we're on a roll. If you want to see a music business where sampling
> is legal, where record labels don't bribe radio stations, and where
> musicians can get their music into the mainstream without signing a
> terrible contract or compromising their sound and their principles,
> this project could honestly be the best place to put your time and
> energy.
>
> Here is our get involved page, where you can tell us where you are,
> what music you're into, and what skills you have. This is the best
> way we have to keep track of people who want to help, and so far it's
> worked pretty well.
> http://www.downhillbattle.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
>
> ESPECIALLY:
> We *always* need help with design, both web, and print. Many of the
> Grey Tuesday sites were very well designed, so we know some of you
> have skills. Our upcoming projects include a campaign to get
> independent labels to sign off the RIAA members list (called
> "Shrinking the RIAA") and several design parodies. Just reply to this
> email if you want to do design work. Remind us what your website is,
> and send URLs for other stuff you've done, if you can.
>
> OK. That's it, and thanks again!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Holmes, Nicholas, and Rebecca
> and the Downhill Battle team
>
>
>
>
Re: New Joywar piece
AWESOME!
On Friday, March 5, 2004, at 01:57 PM, Patrick Lichty wrote:
> http://www.voyd.com/joywar/ascii.htm
On Friday, March 5, 2004, at 01:57 PM, Patrick Lichty wrote:
> http://www.voyd.com/joywar/ascii.htm
Re: The Distorted Molotov
On Friday, March 5, 2004, at 01:17 PM, Joy Garnett wrote:
>
>> There's no free lawsuit in this country.
>
> said like a true veteran; I want that on a t-shirt (to wear with my
> pirate
> patch?)
Funny you mention that. Tonight is Yael's opening at Bitforms. It
occured to me that for these events, I should come in with a t-shirt
that just says BUY ART. In big, bold Arial Black, maybe Impact. Maybe
next show.
We could just make a whole collection:
> There's no free lawsuit in this country.
> BUY ART
> F***K Valenti
etc, etc
l i z a
=========================
www.culturekitchen.com
>
>> There's no free lawsuit in this country.
>
> said like a true veteran; I want that on a t-shirt (to wear with my
> pirate
> patch?)
Funny you mention that. Tonight is Yael's opening at Bitforms. It
occured to me that for these events, I should come in with a t-shirt
that just says BUY ART. In big, bold Arial Black, maybe Impact. Maybe
next show.
We could just make a whole collection:
> There's no free lawsuit in this country.
> BUY ART
> F***K Valenti
etc, etc
l i z a
=========================
www.culturekitchen.com
Re: The Distorted Molotov
On Friday, March 5, 2004, at 11:34 AM, Joy Garnett wrote:
> That is partly why photojournalists sue: they want control over
> the interpretation and context for the photograph, otherwise it's use
> could be up for grabs.
I just want to make a point that this is the reason MN got C&D'd by
Mattel. It was so obvious that what he created was not a Barbie that a
child could play with. But Mattel has sued people in 3 prominent
lawsuits on the grounds that the images created with artworks corrupted
and diluted the Barbie trademark and, thusly, hurt the company's
property. Here's some links to the latest dismissed case:
http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/cyberia-l/msg44605.html
http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?idx93&cid=1&cname=Media
We could talk to our heart's content about the multivocity of art, of
difference and the Nietzschean critique of the thing-in-tself but that
does not a legal argument make. Companies and individuals do not trade
in goods anymore but in brands and for that matter, CR and TR holders
with the money to sue will do so to protect their right to market the
'Myth of a Brand' as a commodity. An artist that want to mess around
with a myth, big or small, has a responsibility not just to their work
but to the possible legal and social implications of their work.
In the case of copyright and trademark interpretations, they go well
beyond the scope of protecting an artist or the uniqueness of a
product. As long as we are in an economy that all what it does is to
trade interpretations, the one with the most money to sue will win. I
mean, even in the case of the Naked Barbie, the guy came out losing
because Mattel did have to reimburse him for his legal expenses. In '96
if we had decided to go to court it would have cost us anything between
20 and 50K --even if the lawyer had defrayed her fees. Now it's in the
hundreds of thousands. In these cases you need to do gobs of research
and that's where the money goes. There's no free lawsuit in this
country.
These are realities artists have to keep in mind when dealing with
sampling, remixing, etc. DJ Danger Mouse has to contend with that as
well, for The Grey Album. Grey Tuesday was nice but the guy is going to
need a legal defense fund to deal with EMI.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1159201,00.html
l i z a
=========================
www.culturekitchen.com
> That is partly why photojournalists sue: they want control over
> the interpretation and context for the photograph, otherwise it's use
> could be up for grabs.
I just want to make a point that this is the reason MN got C&D'd by
Mattel. It was so obvious that what he created was not a Barbie that a
child could play with. But Mattel has sued people in 3 prominent
lawsuits on the grounds that the images created with artworks corrupted
and diluted the Barbie trademark and, thusly, hurt the company's
property. Here's some links to the latest dismissed case:
http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/cyberia-l/msg44605.html
http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?idx93&cid=1&cname=Media
We could talk to our heart's content about the multivocity of art, of
difference and the Nietzschean critique of the thing-in-tself but that
does not a legal argument make. Companies and individuals do not trade
in goods anymore but in brands and for that matter, CR and TR holders
with the money to sue will do so to protect their right to market the
'Myth of a Brand' as a commodity. An artist that want to mess around
with a myth, big or small, has a responsibility not just to their work
but to the possible legal and social implications of their work.
In the case of copyright and trademark interpretations, they go well
beyond the scope of protecting an artist or the uniqueness of a
product. As long as we are in an economy that all what it does is to
trade interpretations, the one with the most money to sue will win. I
mean, even in the case of the Naked Barbie, the guy came out losing
because Mattel did have to reimburse him for his legal expenses. In '96
if we had decided to go to court it would have cost us anything between
20 and 50K --even if the lawyer had defrayed her fees. Now it's in the
hundreds of thousands. In these cases you need to do gobs of research
and that's where the money goes. There's no free lawsuit in this
country.
These are realities artists have to keep in mind when dealing with
sampling, remixing, etc. DJ Danger Mouse has to contend with that as
well, for The Grey Album. Grey Tuesday was nice but the guy is going to
need a legal defense fund to deal with EMI.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1159201,00.html
l i z a
=========================
www.culturekitchen.com
Re: The Distorted Molotov
On Friday, March 5, 2004, at 10:36 AM, twhid wrote:
> Liza wrote on her blog:
>> Joy Garnett Riot show are oil paintings of images sampled from
>> newswires and other public news media. Now she is not only being sued
>> by the photojournalist whose picture was sample in Molotov but she is
>> being asked to never show and never sell the artwork. This is
>> obviously not a case of an artist protecting his speech rights but of
>> one artist using his copyrights as a way to censor another artist. A
>> sad case of Stockholm Syndrome if there ever was.
>
> I would like to add to Liza's thoughts.
>
> I'm not sure it's censorship... Why would the photojournalist want to
> censor Joy? There really is no reason.
Yes there is. For whatever reason the work is objectionable to her/him.
Censorship is the work/activity of a censor. What is a censor? I culled
this from our trusty Dictionary.com
> cen
> Liza wrote on her blog:
>> Joy Garnett Riot show are oil paintings of images sampled from
>> newswires and other public news media. Now she is not only being sued
>> by the photojournalist whose picture was sample in Molotov but she is
>> being asked to never show and never sell the artwork. This is
>> obviously not a case of an artist protecting his speech rights but of
>> one artist using his copyrights as a way to censor another artist. A
>> sad case of Stockholm Syndrome if there ever was.
>
> I would like to add to Liza's thoughts.
>
> I'm not sure it's censorship... Why would the photojournalist want to
> censor Joy? There really is no reason.
Yes there is. For whatever reason the work is objectionable to her/him.
Censorship is the work/activity of a censor. What is a censor? I culled
this from our trusty Dictionary.com
> cen