Warner Music Takes Down Popular Star Wars Acapella Video
from the but-why? dept
Warner Music Group sure does have a way of shooting itself in the foot repeatedly these days. The company, which keeps claiming that it's not as bad as the public makes it out to be, sure is working hard to suggest otherwise. You may recall that, beyond trying to institute a music tax (which is a bad idea) and suing any innovative startup that has anything to do with music, the company is also in the middle of a dispute with YouTube over how much money Google should pay Warner Music for any uploaded video that includes any bit of Warner Music Group music. This has served to piss off some of Warner's own musicians, and now it's pissing off fans as well -- whose anger (warning: that video is not even remotely safe for work if your speakers are turned on) is getting directed right back at Warner Music.The latest, as sent in by Rose M. Welch, is that Warner appears to have taken down a super popular video of one guy, Corey Vidal, singing all parts to an amusing 4-part a capella tribute to Star Wars, to the tune of a number of different John Williams' songs. The actual a capella song is sung by a group called Moosebutter (who is not signed to Warner Music) and Corey's video of their song was done with Moosebutter's full support. You can still see Corey's video on other sites of course:
It's not at all clear if this new takedown is related to the last one, but it's extremely difficult to see how Warner Music has the slightest claim here. The song is written and performed by Moosebutter, while the video was done by Corey, and while the song does use some melodies from John Williams songs, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone familiar with copyright law (other than, of course, entertainment industry IP lawyers) who doesn't think the song is pretty clear fair use. It's transformative, not derivative. It's a parody. It doesn't harm the commercial value of the original works. Moosebutter is also confused as to why it was just Corey's video taken down, when many others use the song as well. It's as if Warner Music purposely targeted the most popular viral video with this song in it. In fact, I'd argue the only harm done to the commercial value of Warner Music was done by Warner Music itself in having this video taken down. In the meantime, I've sent a note to the folks at Warner Music to get a comment... and will add it here should they ever reply. Update: We got an official "no comment." Glad they're really a part of the "conversation."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: corey vidal, john williams, moosebutter, star wars, takedown, viral video
Companies: warner music group
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Just pay for the movie and go away.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
A Theory
What if the people who search for these things are actually people who want the music to be free, and want new business models to prosper. At the same time however, they have so much hatred for these large corporations that have come to control everything, that they laid out a very long term plan. This plan was to infiltrate these large media giants and try to help point them in a bad direction. This way they point to videos like this and get it taken down, its another shot in the foot. So really, it is like somebody is purposely trying to make Warner look bad. Because that is all they seem to want to do, is look bad. (Well, for music. I would still very readily side with them on the Watchmen ordeal)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Warner music has proven themselves to be one of the most clueless organization in the industry....why bother?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Yes. Fixed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
@Chris
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Idiots! You must do the American thing!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Subversives
WMG
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Subversives
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mmmm
Is it an example of how de-sensitized we've all become to breaking the law( which is changing to accomadate Digital Rights since it was possible to download.Don't forget a public and televised performance of a "cover version")
is the legal property of the writer and publisher.
I think on one hand its so easy and perhaps even trendy to stick the finger up at the record companies with this but whether we like it or not it is illegal.
All the majors are feeling pissed off about all this and rightly so if your the CEO trying stem the holes from a digital leeky bucket.
Not just this guy getting booted but the wider thing that this is all part of.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Mmmm
1) I do not download their content.
2) Why should I have to put up their bullshit, being accused of criminal behavior (actually it is a civil matter) being spied upon and threatened with taxes, fees etc for crap that I do not want nor have "stolen" ?
Can you give me just one reason ?
And please none of that "for the better good" crap because the content mafiaa is not interested in the better good.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Mmmm
You don't have to toe the corporate line if you don't work for them. Copyright is a complicated issue, but works like the one above neither harm anyone nor constitute "stealing" in any way, shape or form. It's a new work - the video being completely new and the soundtrack being used with permission from the copyright owners. The only copyright question is whether the soundtrack is sufficiently different to the works that inspired it to be considered fair use or not. Given that Fox and Sony, and not Warner, own the copyrights for most of those originals, this takedown is not justified.
If you're going to incoherently attack people, at least get your facts right and use complete sentences, please.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Mmmm
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Mmmm
So, since a guy sang a cover of a song by a group who's song includes a small part of a melody that was part of a 'Love Theme' to a movie that I saw in theaters when i was 3 (written by one of the greatest composers of our time, and a national treasure)... which just happened to be released by Warner Bros... WOW!!! COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT!
How many nights did WMG's lawyers stay up late trying to find this?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mmmm
So perhaps All the majors are singing from the same hymn sheet on this and as its doubtful joe blogs has the lawyer backing to take this to court anyway its just sour grapes now because,Ok its only a bit here and a bit there etc etc but
hey.....
What does john Williams reckon?
WMG probably didn't stay up at all as it was probably George Lucas...or Chewbacca
thrrwwwwwwwwwww
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: A Theory
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]