Slashdot Mirror
Jonathan Coulton Song Used By Glee Without Permission
FunPika writes "Jonathan Coulton, who is known for songs such as "Code Monkey", is claiming that his cover of "Baby Got Back" was used without permission on Glee, a television show aired by Fox Broadcasting Company. When the Glee version appeared on YouTube last week, Coulton suspected that it sounded similar to his cover, and several of his fans confirmed this by analyzing the two tracks. Despite Coulton contacting Fox, they continued with airing the episode and have placed the song on sale in iTunes."
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/18/3891836/glee-uses-jonathan-coultons-cover-of-baby-got-back-without-permission
There's no protection for a cover. However, the Glee people weren't nice because they didn't credit him for his ultra-boring cover of a great song.
specifically, the license Jonathan Coulton uses, allows for noncommercial use. Anyone want to argue that this is non-commercial use?
FTFY.
A cover is a derivative work. It is covered by copyright to the extent that it contains new, original creative expression above and beyond the original work. So to say that "it's not really covered by copyright law" is pretty much completely wrong unless the cover sounds almost exactly like the original, which his cover clearly does not. At all.
Oh, his melody is most assuredly covered by copyright. Unquestionably. Anyone who says otherwise is either deliberately lying or knows nothing whatsoever about copyright law. It's an independent musical expression sufficient to be protected on its own by copyright if not combined with those lyrics. Therefore, it is protected just the same as any other artistic creation. If Fox really stole his original melody, and continued to use it even after having been informed that their use was not authorized, that meets the criteria for willful infringement. I believe the words "treble damages" come to mind.
Based on what I'm reading, it sounds like Fox isn't remotely on the right side of the law here. I would strongly urge Mr. Coulton to contact a lawyer who specializes in copyright cases. What Fox's lawyers are telling him is complete bulls**t, and they're pretty much pissing their pants hoping he doesn't sue, because they have a pretty good idea how many figures they'll lose if he does.
I would also strongly urge Mr. Coulton to file a proper takedown request with Apple. This forces Fox to put all their cards on the table, and gives them notice that you intend to take action if they don't come to a reasonable settlement. It also takes their content off of iTunes for at least a few days, during which they're losing a metric f**kton of sales. This has a tendency to force their lawyers to take your claims seriously, where they otherwise might not.
That said, IANAL, and this is not legal advice except for the the "you should contact a copyright lawyer" bit.
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We aren't talking about someone doing a 'similar' cover, we are talking about Fox, by all appearances, using his Karaoke track verbatim against his license and singing over it. Hell, even the lyrics kept "Johnny C's in trouble" instead of the original lyrics. Analysis suggests they even had to work a bit to try to edit out a duck quack from his track, but still left some sign of that quack behind.
In fact, reports are that the show lifts a *lot* of differently done arrangements of well known songs done by obscure people without permission without a shred of apologetic tone or credit given.
But at least it is equal opportunity, a fair number of more well known musicians whose songs have been featured aren't exactly pleased to hear their works crop up in that show either.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
It's worth pointing out that this was released under Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial" license, which means anyone can adapt (remix, sing over, etc.) and distribute it, but must give due credit to the original author and must not use it for any commercial purpose.
Actually, as I noted elsewhere, Coulton explicitly states on his online store that his covers are not CC-licensed.
FTFY.
A cover is a derivative work. It is covered by copyright to the extent that it contains new, original creative expression above and beyond the original work. So to say that "it's not really covered by copyright law" is pretty much completely wrong unless the cover sounds almost exactly like the original, which his cover clearly does not. At all.
And your post is written by someone with no knowledge of copyright law. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
Covers of audio recordings are NOT infringing derivative works for the purpose of the Copyright Act. A copyright holder cannot stop or successfully sue over any individual's derivation of a song so long as the mechanical license is paid. This does not have to be negotiated, because 17 USC 115 provides for a compulsory license rate for such action.
A recording of the cover is entitled to copyright protection as a work of the cover artist, not the original artist.
The issue isn't the cover version, but in reality, the use of a sampled recording of Mr. Coulton's, a totally separate issue and a fairly straightforward form of copyright infringement if true. However, depending on the use of the recording and who owns the copyright in that recording, it's possible that the show actually did clear the use. That is all completely notwithstanding your response to the other poster, who was actually closer to correct than you are.
The power to create covers is not an exclusive right of a copyright holder. A cover is not a protected class of derivative work.
IAAL, and you should stop presenting yourself as an expert.
Parody is protected as fair use. Copying parody is not.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Perhaps because Coulton was noted on Slashdot long before he wrote songs for Valve.
Coulton got the ok to do a version of baby got back. He did a new and unique arrangement and performance. Glee did an identical rip-off of his song without permission, then aired it and put it on itunes for purchase.
Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY84MRnxVzo
Coulton's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWaN_Tc5wo
Glee rip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yww4BLjReEk
You'll notice the second two are identical and very different from the first.
There is separate licensing for covers and derivative works. Coulton only got a license to cover, although his certainly an original take on it, he has no special ownership over his version, anyone else getting a license to cover can perform a version identical to coultons.
I never said that they are infringing. I merely said that they are derivative works. Whether they are infringing or not depends on whether you have a license (whether compulsory or otherwise). If they were not derivative works, you wouldn't need a license.
Also, compulsory licensing is basically irrelevant here. Fox doesn't have a compulsory license for his music. Nobody does compulsory licensing when distributing something to millions of people. Glee has an average of something like 9 million viewers, so that would cost them the better part of a million bucks in compulsory licensing fees. Major labels and TV networks and the like always negotiate a much lower rate than the statutory rate, or else they don't use your music.
I never said otherwise. Please reread what I said. The recording is entitled to copyright protection as a recording, in that the recording itself is an artistic work above and beyond the original. However, because it is a derivative work, the copyright protection extends only to changed elements (which includes the recording itself, by virtue of the fact that it isn't the original recording).
However, if I create a cover of a song and then somebody else does a cover of a song, and if we both imitate something that is present in the original recording, I can't sue over it, because the original recording holds copyright over that element, and mine does not. Not that this has any relevance in this particular case, of course. And that is what I mean when I say that copyright covers only changed elements.
No, that's only part of it. The issue is that Mr. Coulton's "cover" set a rap song to music that did not exist in the original work. Therefore, the music itself has a copyright separate and independent from the recording. So if they used the music, that's a copyright, violation, and if they used the actual recording, that's a second copyright violation.
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wtf.... BONGOS gave the copyrights to the song over the Jagger and Richards? that is fucked up....that song is 99% not written by those douche bags.
Then you obviously haven't heard the mix they are talking about:
"Song credits
Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, it has been credited to Keith Richards and Mick Jagger after charges by the original copyright owners that the song was plagiarized from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of The Rolling Stones' 1965 song "The Last Time"."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC5cdGBY04
Sig out of date
The Glee version shows characteristic loss of data above 16k -- this was ripped from an mp3 or other lossy format at some point.
In copyright law (and in most, if not all, areas of IP) there is a defense called "equitable estoppel." The copyright owner's lack of action against an alleged infringement that he or she knows about can sometimes be interpreted as permission to continue use. There's also a defense called "laches" (pronounced: "latches") which can be employed in response to unreasonable delays in prosecution.
There is separate licensing for covers and derivative works. Coulton only got a license to cover, although his certainly an original take on it, he has no special ownership over his version, anyone else getting a license to cover can perform a version identical to coultons.
Except the Berne Convention gives him copyright over the derivative work. They cannot just steal it and say "welp, it's a cover, so you have no rights." Especially since it's an original arrangement (he didn't just sing along to the original instruments).
And it's not that they just got a licence and decided to do an acoustic, folk-like version like Coulton did. They literally used inverse phase wave mapping to remove the vocals on his song, then sang the same lyrics, including the "Johnny C's in Trouble" line (whereas the original was "Mix-a-Lot's in Trouble"), and this is key: On top of his original instrumental track.
They blatantly stole a song online, are attempting to profit from it, and oh yeah, the producer for Glee basically taunted Coulton on Twitter, suggesting he should be happy he got ripped off.
Oh, and did I mention that this isn't the first time they've done it? By far?
They literally used inverse phase wave mapping to remove the vocals on his song, then sang the same lyrics, including the "Johnny C's in Trouble" line
Although the Glee version is a very close reproduction, I don't think it's done by channel phase inverting trick because that technique results in a mono backing track, and their backing track is clearly stereo. Plus if you listen closely on headphones you can hear they're using different drum samples and the instruments sound a bit different.
However, it's worth noting that the only thing used in Jonathan Coulton's cover from the original is the lyrics. The cover has completely new chord progression and vocal melody that doesn't exist in the original rap at all. Essentially in this case the "cover" is a completely different song with the lyrics from "Baby got back", so I think it's still a clear copyright violation regardless of how they reproduced Coulton's music.
Here's a version where someone synched up the two versions via the first few instrumental hits at the start of the song:
https://soundcloud.com/alacrion/joco-v-glee
Literally they are note for note the same as far as instrumental bits go. Ok, there are SMALL differences are when they used the audio version of a poorly done photoshop job to remove certain elements, like the duck quacking (which can still be heard, faintly), but, that's just me.
And yeah, it's a clear copyright violation. And the guys from Glee should know better. However, I *believe* their stance is that JoCo is just some silly little Internet artist and they can get away with this because what can he do, eh?
I personally think they vastly underestimated how big his followings are on the Interwebs, and how loud us computer nerds can be when we feel one of our own (remember, Coulton was a Slashdotting computer programmer before making it big as a musician) is being thrown under the bus.
The in-game version was sung by Ellen McLain, but JoCo sang on the Portal Soundtrack. Here's one of his versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8