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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."
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.
"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...
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7747455/Saturday.Night.Live.S38E05.Bruno.Mars.720p.HDTV.x264-BAJSKORV_%5BP
It happened.
It was pretty good I guess. I think the point of this article is to highlight how ridiculous this has all become. Parody is ALWAYS protected and he mixed up the words [ostensibly] as a form of parody expression. But rather than fight about it, they [too] would rather give up and give in.
They can't even be civil among themselves, so what hope to we, the little people, have in dealing with this bastards?
In all fairness Bruno Mars was very good.
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.
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.
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
As God is my witness, I thought WKRP syndication would fly.
The fundamental paradox of of commercial copyright: In dealing with the consumers, corporations expect to be treated as essentially trustworthy. They approach the courts as though they are decent, responsible, hard working business owners. They expect laws to be tilted toward a presumption that their company would never abuse them. Then in dealing with each other, they act like everyone else in the industry is a rabid shark.
Who is John Cabal?
Greatest... episode... ever...
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
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
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.
Yes. I was like "Who??" Then he ended up doing a good job. I still don't know why George Takei hasn't hosted. Ever.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
"When everyone is out to get you....
-Dr. Johnny Fever
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I agree.
I'd never heard of the guy before, but I was a bit surprised to see how well he did on that sketch, and many others.
I was also pleasantly surprised to hear him and his band perform...it has been a long time since I've seen a band on SNL, not lip sync, actually sing with real vocal singing (not just talking or yelling), and to see people actually playing instruments WHILE actually be entertaining dancing around, etc.
This was the first performance in years that I did NOT have to fast forward through on my DVR.
They were actually musical, and entertaining....nice to see that again for a change.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
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and clickable magnet linky seriously, a tracker at tracker . i stole . it ???
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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?
"If I recall, that isn't actually true, sadly."
You're right. I believe it differs for initial transmission and later re-broadcast (and things may be even more liberal for initial *live* transmission, as in SNL's case). All sorts of shows have to be cut for re-broadcast for music reasons, it's nothing new, it's gone on for years. I was reading just the other day that re-runs of The Gong Show are and always have been cut for music licensing reasons. That's decades old.