Even Obama Is A Pirate: BMG Issues New Takedown On Original Obama Singing Al Green Clip
from the this-may-get-interesteing dept
Wow. So earlier today, we wrote about how BMG issued a takedown on the new web-based ad put out by the Romney campaign, which included a brief clip of President Obama singing Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." As we argued, this use seemed to be pretty clearly "fair use." And, of course, it was noteworthy that BMG only seemed to go after the Romney ad, making it pretty clear that this was politically motivated. The original clips of Obama singing Al Green were all over YouTube... and BMG only chose to go after the one used in a Romney commercial. It appears that someone pointed out to BMG's lawyers that this looks really bad, so rather than backing down, BMG has doubled down and issued takedowns to a bunch of the original videos of Obama singing that one line from Al Green. Here's one that shows BMG issued the takedown.And, of course, in true Streisand Effect manner, all this is doing is calling a lot more attention to the video... and BMG's ridiculous censorious response to the situation.
Update: And... as Michael Weinberg points out, BMG appears to only be targeting President Obama singing Al Green. There are tons of other clips of Al Green singing the song himself or others singing the song. All left up. Hmm...
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Filed Under: al green, barack obama, copyright, dmca, fair use, takedown
Companies: bmg
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Ohshit
Everyone "needs" to be sued!
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Pirate song time!
Even Obama's a Pirate you see!
Do what you want! A pirate is free!
Even Obama is a pirate!
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Facepalm!
Idiots....
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Re: Facepalm!
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Today's Fuckwith of the Day award...
Let's all give them a big round of applause now.
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Re: Today's Fuckwit of the Day award...
awww, fuck.
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This is payback
IT WAS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE, WASN'T IT, AP?
/sigh
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[citation needed]
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Re: Today's Fuckwith of the Day award...
Hmm... Considering all they've done today, I say they do deserve an award.
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Re: Ohshit
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BMG Digs Deeper
If I was Al Green I would be incensed. For older artists having your music on Youtube is essential to keep your songs from being forgotten since the labels tend to dump old artists to make way for new music where profits are higher.
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Re: This is payback
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Re: Re: Ohshit
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Re: BMG Digs Deeper
This is true of Tangerine Dream, I have read from one of them that there are more of their songs available on YouTube than they actually have anymore. From what I understand some of the labels that owned them destroyed alot of their master copies.
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Re:
Can I be Pirate Suja??
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Re: Re:
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I hope this becomes a major election issue. It's pretty obvious that copyright is being straight-up abused, and nothing really will change until it inconveniences people in power. Well, here's the inconvenience - let's see the change.
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Re: Re: Facepalm!
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Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
Q: You know what was really on the mysterious 18-1/2 minute gap in Presient Nixon's tape?
A: The president was singing a copyrighted song!
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Re: Re: Re:
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100% boycott damnit!
You're your own worst enemies!
Al fucking who? I don't give a shit if it's his label that's evil. They're lowlife assholes and he signed with them - not me.
Fuck them both.
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SonyBMG United States Phone Number.
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Re: 100% boycott damnit!
As for Al Green signing with the label: That's kind of how it was back then. There wasn't really another way to get your music out there. I can't fault the guy for signing with the group...but I can fault the group for their abuse of the DMCA and copyright law.
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Does the BMG need to censor itself?
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I----, I'm so in love with you
RomneyBot-2000 will have to process pie to the googleplex digit, to be half as cool.
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Re: Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
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Re: Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
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Re:
I always did wonder if there's a procedure to have your sense of humor surgically removed, and I'm glad that you've confirmed that it's possible, and it works. I'm only left with one question: how much did it cost?
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The real question...
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Re: Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
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Re: Pirate song time!
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Re: Re: Today's Fuckwit of the Day award...
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Re:
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Re: 100% boycott damnit!
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But it's nice to know that there are videos available here that are blocked in other countries, never thought this could happen.
Oh, and your president really is a good singer ;-)
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Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
-----------------
"The notice-and-takedown procedure requires YouTube to leave an allegedly infringing work offline for at least 10 days."
That, quite simply, is false. On a few levels. First of all, YouTube has special deals with the RIAA & MPAA that don't even require them to go through the DMCA process. Second, the DMCA requires YouTube to take down the video OR expose themselves to liability. An idiot in a hurry could've taken one look at the video and made the determination that there was no infringement, therefore no copyright claim, therefore no liability, therefore no reason to take it down.
But in this instance, YouTube is acting as a spineless. Yes, the DMCA allows & even encourages the censoring of speech (political or otherwise) for vindictive purposes under the guise of copyright law and the DMCA needs to be updated to reflect all that we've learned in the past 1.5 decades. But no, the DMCA does NOT require YouTube to take down every video that has had a copyright notice filed against it. That's a misconception most people have, and great tech sites like Ars that repeat it so glibly have only reinforced this incorrect assessment of the law. I hope you can correct the article & avoid making this mistake in the future.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/yes-video-of-obama-belting-out-im-so-in-love-with-you -is-fair-use
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Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
Does it really matter anymore whether it's exactly true—or precisely false?
It's an idea that seems to have become embedded into people's beliefs. Once that happens, the meme spreads to lawyers. And from lawyers the meme spreads to judges. The judges write their opinions with that belief. And it becomes the law.
In a short time, the original words of the statute don't really matter anymore: The culture accepts the necessity of 10 days of censorship—even for core political speech.
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Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
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Re:
*Not sure how it's commercial advantage, but anyone else caught by BMG singing in public would certainly be accused of it.
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Re: Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
Then I'll hit you with an even sadder truth.
The vast majority of the American public will never even become conscious of the argument here or over at Ars.
That is, most people won't hear about any fair use controversy. Instead, if they hear about the takedown at all —read about in mainstream news— —catch a five second comment on TV— they'll hear that not even presidential candidates can get away with violating copyright. And that's it. The entire message that will spread to the larger population is that Obama's use was an infringement. Romney's use was an infringement. That's the only message they'll ever get from this story. If they hear about it at all.
You can't even copy nine seconds of a copyrighted song. Not even one line.
Not for news. Not for political speech. Not for nothing. Not even nine seconds. Not even one line. It's owned, you see.
And the public will accept that. They don't really have any choice.
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We are Many.
We are Legion.
And We also Run For Elections.
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Re: Facepalm!
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Re:
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Re: SonyBMG United States Phone Number.
The owner of the song copyright can request any unlicensed sync be taken down for any reason.
It could be that that AL GREEN saw the Romney ad, and asked his publisher to issue the takedown. And it's his prerogative to do so.
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Re:
PIRATE! He deprived the copyright owner of royalties.
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Songwriters ask politicians not to use their work all the time.
It doesn't appear that the Romney campaign has a fair use argument to stand on here, since they DIDN'T EVEN CREATE THE COVER VERSION.
Perhaps the doubling down was just to be thorough. I doubt Al Green or the song's publisher cares about the original, they probably just don't want Romney to use it in an attach ad.
And good for them.
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Re: Re: Re:
Everyone is a bloody pirate.
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Re: Re: Re:
Psst: Just once in your life, try to recognize that the strawman you've built up in your head that you think is me... isn't me. It'll make you look less like an idiot.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Not that you're really him or anything.....
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Well, obviously YOU do, but it's juist bad policy
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Re:
And?
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Re:
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Obama isn't the pirate. Associated Press is.
What BMG is claiming is NOT legal is for anyone to use a recording of that song in a YouTube video. And that appears to cover a recording of ANYONE singing that song, be it the President of the United States or that Anonymous Coward. (Or me, but I struggle to hit that high A, so I tend to sing "Love and Happiness" instead.)
Therefore, President Obama is NOT the pirate. So who ARE the pirates? Associated Press, CBS News, ABC News, The Young Turks, and whatever SuperPAC made that Romney ad. Those first three are large media conglomerates, all of whom have demonstrated great eagerness to sue anyone who "illegally" distributes their "intellectual property". They've all been labeled pirates. And I guarantee you they won't do a damn thing to fight this, because they want to make sure they have the right to shut down and/or sue anyone re-enacting 9 seconds of their crap, too.
This is the world we live in.
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Streisand Effect
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Re: Re: BMG Digs Deeper
That is true crime. Where's the outrage over such as this?
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Re: Re:
And, in Eldred, remember when Justice Ginsburg wrote:
Well, Justice Ginsburg wrote that, but she was lying.
And she went on to write: As we see with these takedowns, it just ain't so. It doesn't really work that way.
And Justice Ginsburg concluded:
But the D.C. Circuit had it right, and Justice Ginsburg knew it.
In actual practice, the “fair use” defense is shit.
Middle of a political campaign in a presidential season, and we see the censorship. News about the President is news. Yet it gets censored. Political commentary criticising the president is core political speech. Yet Mr Romney's video gets taken down. Censored.
Justice Ginsburg is a liar: Copyright runs roughshod over the first amendment.
That's the “And”.
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Re: Re: SonyBMG United States Phone Number.
Proof
and
Fair Usage.
I know such as yourself hate both, but the land of reality beckons.
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Revenge
It could also be Obama was involved with the takedown and given the first takedown notices indicate the video was infact taken down by the very man who "stood against" SOPA. This makes Obama even worse for sensoring out his human side.
An idea I am getting is that Obama really posted the videos and VP Joe Biden, with his connections to the MPAA and RIAA, decided that it would look bad for for his future in the Whitehouse. Biden has also been known to take bribes.
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Re: Obama isn't the pirate. Associated Press is.
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Re: Re:
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Politically-motivated takedown
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the ability to dry out grasses?
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Re: Re: Re:
Territorial rights?
Performance rights for more than one public performance?
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Re: Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
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Re: Shamelessly stolen from a commenter on another site
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
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But in Strawman's world, all birds are also women. SHOCK! HORROR!
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Re: Pirate song time!
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Re:
I have to agree, of the most recent murderous US presidents, this one is definitely the most presentable.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
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- The power to go up in smoke.
- The power to burn to the ground.
- The power to hypnotize people at the Burning Man Festival.
- Produce intense heat.
Now here is the challenge, it is finding a way to make something funny about those in a legal context.
This reminds me of Smooky the Bear, for some reason.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ars Technica & other sites still don't get the DMCA
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Gonna be looking dumb here but.........
Thanks.
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Re: Gonna be looking dumb here but.........
It quickly became obvious to them that they looked like total partisan hacks by doing this, so they tried to fix it by going asshat on both parties and DMCA-ing the original clip (featuring Obama) that the Romney camp used to make the political ad.
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ringtone
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Your title is an incorrect assumption
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Re: ringtone
Shhhhh. The guy is like Beetlejuice. The next thing you know he'll be all over the comments here spamming links to that silly Trichordist site.
Oh and check out the Trichordist Quantcast stats. It looks like Lowery's 15 minutes of Internet fame has come and gone.
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Fuck BMG
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This makes no good business sense
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Re: Ohshit
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Re: Re: Ohshit
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Re: Re: Re: Ohshit
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