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
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.
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: andrew kolb, copyright, david bowie, fan art
Companies: onward music
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And then there is the whole ability for the content holder to stomp their foot and get a Judge to side with them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Trolling: 0
Funny: 1
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Spell Checking
HTML tagging
Punctuation
Trolling
Measuring
Then comes profit?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
http://twitpic.com/6hd3in
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Typo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/03/01/david-bowie-bonds/
Yeah, okay.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
There was party and nobody invited me?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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. Please don't call the NFL and tell them I told you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Prisoner 201's asinine comment
Yes, you are. If you can't see it then freetardation is too deeply ingrained in you. Kill yourself now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Prisoner 201's asinine comment
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
At first glance
I can see how the copyright holders of the original song have a legitimate fear. /sarc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
He never did bad things,
He never did anything out of the blue...
Don't lawyer up please.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
re comment 12
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: re comment 12
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: re comment 12
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Additionally, I would have commented at the "Star's" site, but they mine info for the ability to make commentary on their articles.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
2001 so he deserves to be sued, jailed, shot, hanged, chopped into little tiny pieces and buried alive.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]