Photographs Are Mechanical Representations Of Facts, And Thus Should Have Only Thin Copyright Protection

Don't Try To Create An Illustrated Version Of A David Bowie Song... Or The Copyright Police Will Come After You

from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept

Fri, Sep 9th 2011 3:47am — Mike Masnick

David Bowie has generally been one of the more forward-looking and forward-thinking musicians out there in understanding the digital revolution. Hell, it was nearly a decade ago when Bowie predicted the end of copyright, and said this was "terribly exciting." Of course, there are only about 10 months left for copyright to disappear for his original prediction to come true, so we're going to assume he was a bit aggressive on the timeline. But, on the whole, Bowie seems to have recognized how the digital world was changing the nature of copyright.

Unfortunately, it appears that whoever holds the copyright on some of his music doesn't quite feel the same way. Someone sent over this article from the Toronto Star, about how an illustrator named Andrew Kolb created some nice illustrations to go with the famous Bowie song Space Oddity, turning it into something of a "children's book." Now leaving aside the... um... oddity of a "children's book" about an astronaut who dies in space, the illustrations looked pretty cool.

Except, as that started to get attention, Kolb was threatened with an infringement claim. Of course, the Star fails Journalism 101, in that it never actually names the party who holds the copyright or who threatened the illustrator. One might come away from the article believing it's David Bowie, but I'm guessing it was someone else. In fact, I reached out to Kolb to find out who sent the takedown, and he said that he'd rather not say, because -- despite starting with a legal nastygram, he's apparently still in contact with the copyright holder, and discussing the possibility of doing something in an authorized manner.

Of course, when I started writing this post, there was actually still a YouTube video of the book and song up, but now if you click below, you see that it's been taken down with a copyright claim from "Onward Music Ltd," who does appear to hold the copyright on the song. Either way, Kolb, who did this purely for fun and not for profit, has pixelated out the name and stopped referring to it as Space Oddity. And seeing as the video is gone, here's an image from the pdf:

Now if Kolb were actually going out and trying to sell this as a book without the copyright holder's approval, you can see where the concern might be. But, seeing as he just did this for fun, it's basically a form of fan art, which most copyright holders (though certainly not all) seem to appreciate. It's somewhat bizarre that such a nice bit of artwork for a song would bring out copyright threats. Kolb seems somewhat amused at the whole setup and the idea that a fun little project he did brought out legal guns, and he certainly doesn't seem upset by it. I still think the whole thing is unfortunate. He was helping to promote the song, not harming it.

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Filed Under: andrew kolb, copyright, david bowie, fan art
Companies: onward music

38 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 4:12am

So...another shining example of copyright promoting the progress of the arts?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 4:17am

Now if Kolb were actually going out and trying to sell this as a book without the copyright holder's approval

Can somebody explain this to me? IANAL but isn't this a transformation and so exempt from copyright?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 4:37am

the Star fails Jouranlism 101 lol you fail at spell checking ;)
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 4:40am

Re:
IANAL either, but I could guess as the mockup of the book seems to include the lyrics that would be a problem.

And then there is the whole ability for the content holder to stomp their foot and get a Judge to side with them.
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A Dan (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:03am

Typo
"Jouranlism 101"?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:04am

David Bowie, the guy who sold his "future revenues" based on his income from copyright works as bonds to investors?

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/03/01/david-bowie-bonds/

Yeah, okay.
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Prisoner 201, 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:15am

Advertising for free is stealing from proffessional advertisers.

Why do you want advertisers to starve and/or be forced to sell their homes, Mike?

The time of wild west advertising is comeing to an end.

Free speech was not meant to facilitate theft!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:29am

Copyright's dead, baby. Copyright's dead.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:33am

Re:
You fail at HTML tagging
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 5:38am

Re:
The Washington Post has a LuLz approach to headlines.

http://twitpic.com/6hd3in
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:02am

Re: Re:
You fail at punctuation.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:27am

Re:
He sold the silly Bowie Bonds to buy back the rights to his own music. I'm not really sure what your point is. He probably knew that they would be worthless if he sensed the direction that the industry would be heading. All he did was beat them at their own game. it was really a brilliant move...
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Gabriel Tane (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:27am

At first glance
when I saw this on The Daily What Geek, I actually thought it was a children's book of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I can see how the copyright holders of the original song have a legitimate fear. /sarc
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:37am

Re:
The party is over, Masnick.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:42am

Re: Re: Re:
You all fail at trolling:

Trolling: 0
Funny: 1
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:43am

Re: Re: Re:
You got the ruler right?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:45am

Re: Re:
You jerks!
There was party and nobody invited me?
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:51am

Re: Re: Re:
Thanks: Il'l work. on; that(
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LJSeinfeld (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:52am

Re: Prisoner 201's asinine comment
Wow. Now go back and re-read what you've posted and tell me how stupid you feel.

So if I tell you about a product I like, I'm stealing from professional advertisers? I hear the Packers won last night. Please don't call the NFL and tell them I told you.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 6:57am

Re: Re: Prisoner 201's asinine comment
So if I tell you about a product I like, I'm stealing from professional advertisers? I hear the Packers won last night.

Yes, you are. If you can't see it then freetardation is too deeply ingrained in you. Kill yourself now.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:03am

If this is sorted, wouldnt mind him doing a follow up with Ashes to Ashes. However this depends on copyright nonsence getting sorted. Le Sigh.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:04am

Re: Re:
If he sold them thinking they would be worthless, he could be guilty of securities fraud. If he didn't protect them, he could be guilty of allowing the value of the investment to decline.

Let's just say that Mr Jones used his most valuable assets (his music) to secure his own future. He knew exactly what it was worth, no matter how much he might say otherwise.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:14am

He never did good things,
He never did bad things,
He never did anything out of the blue...

Don't lawyer up please.
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Jay (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:32am

Re: Re: Re:
Let me make sure I'm following along in my home here...

By selling his own music, he can be charged with a securities fraud by devaluing the price of music he created...

And can perform anytime he wants to...

Based on some lawyer wanting to make his life a living hell for more profit. Is that how I'm seeing your argument? Is that really how you want to present it?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:39am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Let's see. First we fail at...

Spell Checking

HTML tagging

Punctuation

Trolling

Measuring

Then comes profit?
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Nicholas Alexander (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 7:40am

re comment 12
I wonder if Onward Music's ownership of this copyright was part of the motivation behind him carefully protecting his works since then? So many artists from the 60s and 70s had no protection so now do not care about the abundant sharing of their works via youtube etc. Even though Bowie has copyrighted his music he has done plenty to encourage the use of his works on the internet. Being aware that more is to be gained from promulgation than endless court cases with some of his earlier management entities.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 8:18am

How dare someone enforce intellectual property rights. If you create something, it should be public domain, so anyone can do whatever they want with it. It's only fair.
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Atkray (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 8:20am

Re: Re: Re:
Only koolaid no cookies. You didn't miss much.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 8:37am

Re:
Well, what is art without an audience?
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Prisoner 201, 9 Sep 2011 @ 9:38am

Re: Re: Re: Prisoner 201's asinine comment
Exactly*.

This hippie culture of being able to advertise what you want, when you want, using only your mouth, is what is bringing this great country to its knees.

LJS, can you honestly not see how many patriotic American job opportunities are lost because people choose to advertise for free?

Can't you see its morally wrong to steal, commit mass murder and/or molest children?

(*) Except the killing part. Dead people dont buy 200+ DVDs per year like everyone else.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 10:06am

Lol at comments, you guys are too much.
Additionally, I would have commented at the "Star's" site, but they mine info for the ability to make commentary on their articles.
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Soma (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 10:22am

Daawww, that pdf really makes me wanna see the whole thing. Oh, and listen to Bowie. Copyright c**kblocked again.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 9 Sep 2011 @ 12:20pm

Obviously he stole the helmet design from
2001 so he deserves to be sued, jailed, shot, hanged, chopped into little tiny pieces and buried alive.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2011 @ 12:27pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
what??? but that's the same old shit you copyrighturds have been drinking everyday for years! this party stinks!!
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Gordon C Harrison, 9 Sep 2011 @ 12:50pm

Re: re comment 12
Hi Nicholas, you asked per permission to reproduce my copyright comments in another article on Techdirt. I responded that you can and don't need TechDirt's permission but my reply has not been posted.
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Anon, 10 Sep 2011 @ 12:09pm

"He was helping to promote the song, not harming it."? B.S. -- The song certainly didn't need any of Kolb's help to be famous; Kolb was promoting nothing but himself by using the song, and seemed to do so quite handily. First, the original news about this made it seem like a collaboration, which it obviously wasn't, so now he's getting even more publicity by making David Bowie seem like the bad guy.
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Nicholas Alexander (profile), 11 Sep 2011 @ 6:23pm

Re: Re: re comment 12
thanks Gordon - I did see it and have placed it on my arts blog manifestarts.co.uk
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FRM, 3 Feb 2016 @ 9:31am

So much about David Bowie. Sad that all we get after he passed away
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