Slashdot Mirror
NBC Erases SNL Sketch From Digital Archive For Fear of Copyright Lawsuit
M.Nunez writes with a tale of copyright woes. From the article: "The digital 'Saturday Night Live' archive does not feature a recent Bruno Mars sketch because it includes impersonations of pop singers and their chart-topping hits. Bruno Mars sings several songs that are not owned by NBC, so it can be presumed that the company refrained from uploading the sketch into its digital archive to avoid any legal issues. Convoluted music licensing laws have essentially erased the Bruno Mars sketch from the digital archives of SNL. In the short comedy sketch, Bruno Mars impersonates vocal performances by Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Louis Armstrong, and Michael Jackson. The sketch cannot be found on NBC.com or Hulu, as a short clip or in either full editions of the episode."
Cheeseburger !! Cheeseburger !! No Coke !! Pepsi !!
SNL regularly doesn't post sketches that involve music in some way. Even if they can defend themselves with fair use, a lawyer probably decided it's simply not worth the hassle for the ad revenue it generates.
His impressions were surprisingly good.
Torrent, or it didn't happen.
And nothing of value was lost
And this is the problem with virtually unlimited copyrights and DRM, it removes items of popular culture from general availability.
Our culture has been monetized and taken from us, to be sold back to us.
"The digital 'Saturday Night Live' archive does not feature a recent Bruno Mars sketch because it includes impersonations of pop singers and their chart-topping hits.
This is the problem with proprietary archives - the host gets to decide what goes in. Someone should go out and invent a distributed system where people can store files locally but share them with anyone else who is interested. If you cut the file into little pieces, you could even get the file from a bunch of other people simultaneously, cutting down the time and sharing the burden. All you'd need would be someone who agrees to record TV shows off the air, then compress and share the files. Admittedly this system relies a lot on volunteers, but it just might work.
Music has always been a very sticky item in the motion pictures (TV and movies).
A lot of the time, you can get permissions to do X, but you can't do Y (e.g., you can tape a production for broadcast, but you can't put it on a DVD). Especially with older things - many TV shows have to be re-cut with licensed music (this can include the opening sequence and credits too) as the original contracts for licensing never included home video or anything else. And some material can't be licensed anymore as their creators are dead and all that (and their estates refuse to grant licenses or permission).
It's just another aspect of the convoluted nature of copyright and licensing.
Top Gun was probably one of the first movies to use a LOT of licensed music during the movie (music composed specifically for a movie (soundtrack scores and such) usually are licensed fully to the movie for further uses as part of the movie, but external music often has commercial value that makes it impractical to grant it).
It's a horrendous mess and something lawyers spend a lot of client money on in trying to obtain releases.
Heck, I know one concert was recorded for Blu-Ray/DVD and PBS. PBS was allowed to include some extra tracks (as a non-profit) that were not allowed to be put on the Blu-Ray or DVD (because those were commercial ventures). Of course, the entire concert couldn't be put in since some didn't include recording and rebroadcast rights...
First figure out a way to license WKRP in Cincinatti. Then maybe I'll find time to give a flying shit about Saturday Night Live.
It's a good thing I grabbed this show when I did. I saw the sketch... it was a 'meh' sketch. Bruno was really good though, but it just didn't compare to previous music impersonation sketches like 'bunny business' or the much better Star Wars screentests. I wonder how often they've removed sketches before with music issues?
SNL regularly doesn't post sketches that involve music in some way. Even if they can defend themselves with fair use, a lawyer probably decided it's simply not worth the hassle for the ad revenue it generates.
When making business decisions - and ALL media is a business - taking the advice of the JDs is factored in.
Another example is the folks who cave to patent Trolls. Spend $2million plus to defend their legal rights or cave for much less - it's good for them but bad for the population in general - yeah, argue "the pulbic good" to their investors. Good luck with that.
I always figured it was sour grapes that kept it out of Hulu and got it aggressively expunged from YouTube. However, given that NBC allowed a re-enactment of that famous performance, maybe it really is music lawyers to blame.
Maybe NBC and it's parent corporation realized the original parody was fair use. They redacted it from the archives because they don't want bots sending DMCA notices and they don't want to take them to court and argue fair use.
It's just getting ridiculous. All this legal crap about copyrights. Augh
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Luckily we have copyright to protect the artists like Louis Armstrong and Michael Jackson. Otherwise they would just stop making music.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
So THAT's the reason! I've been looking at SNL's archive on Netflix and sat there perplexed about certain classic sketches not being included - one of my favorite Christopher Walken sketches is "Stalk Talk" - but for some reason it wasn't on the Best of Walken DVD and stricken from Netflix. It starts off with a portion of The Police's "Every Move You Make". Thank God I still have a crappy rip of it from one of my old VHS tapes from when it first aired. Otherwise I'd have to question whether or not it ever truly existed!
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
The article states "... it can be presumed that the company refrained from uploading the sketch into its digital archive to avoid any legal issues", but doesn't seem to provide any supporting evidence - but it just proceeds to assume this is fact. The article does say "almost all of the best Saturday Night Live skits are currently available online" (emphasis mine). Even in the small number of comments posted here already there's already mention that this may not have been a particularly good sketch, and it's not like the archive is comprehensive - so why assume this sketch isn't in the archive because of legal concerns?
Parody has been long proven to be protected speech. Additionally, an artist covering a different artist's song is long-established practice. There's simply no reason to believe this presumption has any basis in fact.
#DeleteChrome
to preserve artistic performances for future generations. Because the Big Four will never release footage of many performances (either because it isn't worth their while, or they are so scared that pirates will record and distribute for free or below cost). Really, such as VHS tapes made from 16mm film transfers of performances such as Jayne Mansfield playing the violin and another of her playing the piano on the Ed Sullivan show (yes, she really could play those instruments). A few people have copies of this (but they keep low profile to avoid attention from the Music And Film Industries Association), not sure if they ever will post on youtube (probably be taken down anyway). I've looked and see if Sullivan estates has this on DVD, apparently not as only sell Elvis, Beatles, Beach Boys. There are many other artists and music but have faded into obscurity, but probably be rediscovered by a 20-something musician rummaging through sheet music saved by some old timer from the 20th century. They will read the notes, thinking this is a brilliant piece of work and make a change in melody and release it as a "new" hit.
mfwright@batnet.com
In this day in age, with terrorism and everything else we can't afford to have any humor or things like parody, I say, don't let the door hit you on the way out. If we could purge the internet from the evils of parody and humor the world would be do much better off. One should not go buy a Weird Al CD, rather it is obvious to all, he should just be jailed for daring to be stupid.
If the show aired without the necessary performance and sync clearances, then they already have legal issues. Simply removing it from on-line archives does not make them go away, but it does mitigate damages.
On the other hand, they may have secured the necessary clearances and paid royalties for the original airing, but found that the royalties for on-line distribution were too high. In particular, since the music was integral to the storyline in a skit, as opposed to a standalone musical performance, one or more of the publishers may have demanded "grand rights" (performance, sync _and_ dramatic use), which carry heavy royalties for rebroadcast or distribution. That's a particular hassle because a dramatic use license must be negotiated with each publisher individually--it isn't handled automatically by the performance rights organizations--and the publisher may deny it altogether. Conceivably, one of the publishers may have raised the dramatic use claim after the show was aired, in which case, the video of this skit may be dead forever.
This is the same damn reason why I can't see most of the old MST3K shows, too.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I hope that entire 'entertainment' industry implodes into being just lawyers who sue each other all day. Starting with SNL which has never ever ever been funny except for maybe the first 2 seasons in the '70's.
BTW I'm waiting the first popup ads IN motion pictures in the theaters. You know it's coming. Product placement, like Coke in Skyfall doesn't pimp it hard enough.
Yet another piece of content going the way of the "Penis Song".
The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
taking the advice of the JDs is factored in.
Isn't it telling that Juris Doctor has the same initials as juvenile delinquent?
Whenever I read an apologetically-toned blog post from the DVD team for a show I'm looking forward to, about how they had to change some of the music because the license was too expensive, I want to be able to say "fuck it, pirate bay." For that to work, we need people recording the original on-air broadcasts and uploading them to torrent sites, or rapidshare, or u****t. Even if it seems pointless, we need people doing it anyway. Even if it's available on the official website for free, with no commercials, on demand, with a free blowjob we still need piracy; it's about freedom and control of information.
At this point, you should ask who owns those rights... I'm betting it isn't BoC.
There are good reasons for a record label or a music publisher to acquiesce. One is that with Internet alternatives to the major labels gaining momentum, major labels will soon have to compete with other infrastructure for bands' loyalty. So it would be unwise for the labels to do anything that makes labels in general look abrasive and inconsiderate.
It's freaking parody or satire ... it's absolutely supposed to be protected use.
This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You mean like in torrent?
*WOOOSH* is the sound of the bits going through the tubes, of course.
We shall see again after 70+N years has passed. Oh, wait we don't as only worms will see you, only worms.
.
and clickable magnet linky seriously, a tracker at tracker . i stole . it ???
.
This link provided in the same capacity that the New York Times provides links in a newsy-informative-way, and not in a these-breadcrumbs-lead-to-anything-you-shouldnot-see kind of way. It's like a binocular closeup view of what you would have seen had you been able to follow the link in the parent post. Are we paranoid enough yet?
.
the bits on the token-ring go round-and-round... zoom-n-zoom... round-n-round...
the bits on the token-ring go whoosh-and-whoosh... 'til you give up the to-ken!
a sketch show here has a recurring part where they record old songs replacing half the words with "penis", recently got sued by the grandchild of a long dead writer for "offending his dead granddad" ...or something like that, was laughed out of court
I saw it through another digital download source. It wasn't funny. Really the whole episode pretty much sucked, except for the debate sketch and the haunted house animatronics sketch.
And why, exactly, do people still think copyright beyond five years (or in fact at all) is a good idea?
This stuff should have been public domain long ago.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Worst episode ever. Down the memory hole with it.
When Beavis and Butt-head were shown on stations other than MTV or on DVD the Music Video segments were removed.
As far as the SNL Bruno Mars skit; it took me about 30 seconds to find it using the four terms "SNL Bruno Mars Pandora".
Our experts say only 42% of the audiance laughed. So you owe us 57% of the revenue assoicated with using those copyrighted material. We estimate that your clip had an audiance of 8.9 Billion. Each viewed the clip on average 5 times. The accepted cost of viewing that material is 125$.
You owe us: 3 Trillion 170 Billion 625 Million dolllars.
Is this what happened to the original Shy Ronnie sketch?
Bow before me, for I am root.