DJ Danger Mouse remixed the vocals from Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' White Album and called his creation The Grey Album. He sent about 3,000 promo copies out, and was soon served with a cease-and-desist notice from EMI, who owns the rights to the White Album master. Danger Mouse complied with EMI's order, but Stay Free! (sponsors of the Illegal Art Exhibit) and many other fans of the remix / bootleg scene and digital freedom activists continued distributing the record over the Internet. EMI sent legal threats to many of them as well but has since backed down, at least for the time being...
From:
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html
Just when we think our legal troubles are behind us, SONY/ATV -- who owns the rights to the Beatles' compositions -- sends our internet service provider (ISP) a DMCA takedown notice (1st March 2004). Fortunately, we have secured legal representation from the EFF and Kurt Opsahl, and have moved our website to the Online Policy Group, a nonprofit ISP devoted to free speech.
Here is our response to Sony/ATV
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/sony_response.html
For more info, check out:
EFF's overview of the Grey Album case
http://www.eff.org/IP/grey_tuesday.php
Grey Tuesday (protest organized by Downhill Battle)
http://www.greytuesday.org/
New York Times on Grey Tuesday
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/arts/music/25REMI.html
Rolling Stone's review of the Grey Album
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19292
Boston Globe's review
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/02/10/jay_z_the_beatles_meet_in_grey_area
DJ Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album' - a start-to-finish staggering, witty, delightful and ferociously funky remix album in which the vocals of Jay-Z's 'Black Album' are endowed with tracks composed entirely of samples from The Beatles' 'White Album', right down to the very last snare drum - may never see the light of day, because the moment that EMI heard about it, they rained a confetti of injunctions on it and harried it from the public domain like litigious foxhounds. This is frustrating, because they are bolting the stable door so long after the horse has bolted that the horse has had time to send them a postcard - the album is out there now, probably already octuple platinum in download terms, and Danger Mouse has publicly stated that he doesn't care about the money so long as people get to hear it. What makes it even more frustrating is the short-sightedness of EMI's ire - one imagines a straining suit way up on high somewhere, veins bulging as he mulls over the gross sacrilege of sampling The Beatles - you can't do that to The Beatles! Two of them are dead! - and prepares to unleash the legal dogs of war. To such people, sampling is that thing like wot Puff Daddy does, as devoid of artistic merit as a cabal of drunken townies murdering 'I Will Survive' on karaoke night. In reality, the astonishing deconstructions and desecrations that Danger Mouse visits upon both the Fab Four and Jigga make 'The Grey Album', at the very least, one of THE great avant-garde pop records of the millennium...
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html Just when we think our legal troubles are behind us, SONY/ATV -- who owns the rights to the Beatles' compositions -- sends our internet service provider (ISP) a DMCA takedown notice (1st March 2004). Fortunately, we have secured legal representation from the EFF and Kurt Opsahl, and have moved our website to the Online Policy Group, a nonprofit ISP devoted to free speech.
Here is our response to Sony/ATV
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/sony_response.html For more info, check out:
EFF's overview of the Grey Album case
http://www.eff.org/IP/grey_tuesday.php Grey Tuesday (protest organized by Downhill Battle)
http://www.greytuesday.org/ New York Times on Grey Tuesday
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/arts/music/25REMI.html Rolling Stone's review of the Grey Album
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19292 Boston Globe's review
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/02/10/jay_z_the_beatles_meet_in_grey_area DJ Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album' - a start-to-finish staggering, witty, delightful and ferociously funky remix album in which the vocals of Jay-Z's 'Black Album' are endowed with tracks composed entirely of samples from The Beatles' 'White Album', right down to the very last snare drum - may never see the light of day, because the moment that EMI heard about it, they rained a confetti of injunctions on it and harried it from the public domain like litigious foxhounds. This is frustrating, because they are bolting the stable door so long after the horse has bolted that the horse has had time to send them a postcard - the album is out there now, probably already octuple platinum in download terms, and Danger Mouse has publicly stated that he doesn't care about the money so long as people get to hear it. What makes it even more frustrating is the short-sightedness of EMI's ire - one imagines a straining suit way up on high somewhere, veins bulging as he mulls over the gross sacrilege of sampling The Beatles - you can't do that to The Beatles! Two of them are dead! - and prepares to unleash the legal dogs of war. To such people, sampling is that thing like wot Puff Daddy does, as devoid of artistic merit as a cabal of drunken townies murdering 'I Will Survive' on karaoke night. In reality, the astonishing deconstructions and desecrations that Danger Mouse visits upon both the Fab Four and Jigga make 'The Grey Album', at the very least, one of THE great avant-garde pop records of the millennium...
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