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So Amazing, So Illegal
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."
FFS, people, trim those goddamn YouTube links! This is all you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
it took me a while to figure it out too. I think he means that you should buy a bunch of cheap food on your credit card and put some lies on your resume (or LinkedIn profile) because you are going to be out of a job soon
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
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.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Have you listened to these ones? They are good. REALLY good. Not just "clever" but really frickin' good COMPOSITIONS, and I'm not even taking into account the jaw-dropping editing skills this guy must have. If you haven't watched yet: http://www.thru-you.com/
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.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
agree. It was nice to look at, however I've seen this done before. On YouTube no less. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo&feature=related) This is DJ Shadow, using video footage. And people have been doing what DJ Shadow did for a while before that. Nice, but not revolutionary. As an earlier post pointed out, it's evolutionary.
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
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
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
Track 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAvS0pc9NIw
Track 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBfj6khrG4
Track 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JffZFRM3X6M
Track 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXulsZpu72E
Track 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i88CKr6Shn4
Track 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vch-Z9ccHTk
Track 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0gYbqOZXQ
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
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.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
the band named themselves when a cup of Starbucks coffee was $1.45. People would hand them $1.50, and the result would be that the customer got a nickel back. That's the way I heard it, anyway.