Mike Baird, Premier Of New South Wales, Has Video Of Him Reading Mean Tweets Taken Down Because REM

from the everybody-hurts dept

Mon, Mar 2nd 2015 3:43pm — Timothy Geigner

REM's music has found itself at the center of copyright disputes in the past, but those instances have mostly occurred in the more traditional sorts of disputes, such as accusations that one band copied another band and blah blah blah. It's part of a series of stories that are old, tired, and contrary to the way popular culture works these days, but at least they contain a shadow of relevance to the original purposes of copyright. However, this time what is on display is the result of a culture of permission run amok, as an Australian politician had his video reading mean tweets about him removed because an REM song was playing in the background.

On Thursday, Baird tweeted a video link of him reading mean tweets, a take-off of US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s popular videos. Everybody Hurts by REM played in the background as Baird read the hate mail, including a tweet that said: “You look like the ‘smiling assassin’. Your charming smile hides your black, Liberal heart.” But by Friday, YouTube had pulled the clip, citing a copyright claim by Warner Chappell, which publishes the US band’s music.

“Mean tweets video removed,” Baird tweeted on Friday. “Working with YouTube and Warner to resolve. Fact: everybody hurts, sometimes.”

Welcome to our world, Mr. Politician, where copyright and the culture of permission have been so twisted into insanely idiotic knots as to remove a funny video under the notion that a portion of an REM song somehow inhibits REM's ability to make new music. Picture, if you will, teleporting the original creators of copyright law into the present, sitting them down at a boardroom table, and having the executives over at Warner Chappell explain to them how the copyright provisions authored so long ago would result in this sort of thing. After those old guys were done accusing you of witchcraft for showing them the video in the first place, there would likely be much head-scratching over how this whole thing could have gotten so misused.

One can only hope that having this happen to a politician that deigns to have a personality such as Baird might be the impetus for some kind of reform, even if it's only local reform.

He appeared confused about a tweet that said “The Premier hates Justin Bieber”.

“Yeah, of course I hate Justin Bieber. Who doesn’t hate Justin Bieber?”

Or the current state of the application of copyright, for that matter. Because this kind of thing isn't what copyright was meant to be.

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Filed Under: australia, copyright, mike baird, new south wales, political video, rem

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2015 @ 4:17pm

Will he remember this incident if and when the AAs come lobbying for even stronger copyright law?
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2015 @ 4:57pm
  
  Re:
  He's a state premier - copyright in Australia is a federal issue (sort of like a state governor compared to the president - we just have less of them)
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2015 @ 6:59pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Mike Baird as state Premier, is a member of the most powerful state branch of the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales, which as the most populous state has the most seats in Federal Parliament. It is also the most corrupt with 10 MP's & former cabinet ministers or 25% of the ruling party found to be corrupt at last year's ICAC probe into the Opposition Labor Party dealings (things didn't go according to plan there). They currently sit on the cross benches as Independent MP's, but that will all change after the upcoming state election at the end of March, where if they get relected will be allowed back into the Liberal Party as full members & most probably get their Cabinet positions back. They were only sent to the cross benches so the Liberals could get reelected this month by being seen to be "clean". It also helps when the dominent Murdoch press keeps their dirty laundry away from prying eyes, all the while attacking the Labor opposition party as the corrupt ones.
    
    As one of the 'nicer' facists Mr. Baird may even try his hand at running for a Federal seat after his term as NSW Premier as all the other NSW Federal MP's (& the PM Tony Abbott) from his party are really on the nose ATM. So there is a good chance he wil come up against the copyright crowd there, however I'm sure he will roll over like a good puppy dog just like all his Federal mates such as NSW Senator George Brandis who is also the Federal Attorney General & can't act fast enough to implement the laws that help out their political donors such as the media moguls.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2015 @ 7:24pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I have wrongly stated that the Australian Attorney General George Brandis is from NSW, he is in fact a Senator from the state of Queensland.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2015 @ 5:00pm
  
  Re:
  Yes, and he'll charge them a bit more.
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tracyanne (profile), 2 Mar 2015 @ 7:19pm

Yes he state Premier
But he still has ear of Federal MPs. He could if he chooses work with the right Federal People.

Most likely he will find a formula that enables he to get the video back and simply forget about it, such is the insensitivity of those in positions of power to the rest of humanity.
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techflaws (profile), 2 Mar 2015 @ 10:08pm

That's nothing. When I uploaded a 1 min clip demonstrating my Sony car stereo's title scroll speed and annyoing orientation of the USB stick (facing towards the driver so the then popular LED would act as a strobe light) with Quees of the Stone Age's "The Lost Art of keeping a secret" with abysmal sound and video quality, some genius flagged it as infringement, because reasons.
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TC, 3 Mar 2015 @ 1:59am

I've been reading TechDirt for years and recommending it to friends who are interesting in following this stuff, and I have to say after all the horror stories I've read, I have come up with the following realization - In order to fix ALL of the copyright and trademark issues in the US, we're at such a crazy point, that there's only one thing that can possibly work - sick John Oliver on it. He got the job done on net neutrality -something NO ONE ELSE had managed to do - so maybe getting his dander up over copyright and getting him to rally everyone into caring about the craziness that goes on - like this story or the "Major Tom" in space fiasco - and helping to force Washington's hand on the matter is the way to go here as well.

Just a thought...
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Violynne (profile), 3 Mar 2015 @ 3:20am

...there would likely be much head-scratching over how this whole thing could have gotten so misused.
This isn't true. The Founding Fathers knew damn well how copyright could stifle innovation and be abused. Lest ye forget, they left a country which was abusing the very law they didn't want in the Constitution.

The reality of the situation is much more grim, and definitely reminiscent of today's "lobbying" in that the wealthy, who had power over government, refused to invest in the "New World" unless provisions of copyright and patent were guaranteed.

This withholding of "crucial funds" kept ratification of the revised Constitution from occurring, and it's why the document took years to get all the signatures.

Remember, kids: since we absolutely, positively refuse to learn from history, we're guaranteed to repeat it.

Enjoy those nastygrams from Google. They're not going anywhere anytime in your lifetime, thanks to copyright.
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- art guerrilla (profile), 3 Mar 2015 @ 4:42am
  
  Re:
  i will only take this opportunity to repeat about how the original terms for copyright were a 'scant' 14 years (actually, if i recall my initial readings, even shorter than that), in a time when information traveled as fast as a horse could, and about the only media outlet you had was the town crier and handbills...
  
  i have never seen ANY REASONABLE reasons for why -in this moderne age of instant, worldwide communications- it has to not only be MUCH LONGER, but essentially endless...
  
  THE ONLY 'REASON' is money-grubbing by korporate 'persons' who matter more than real people...
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2015 @ 4:29am

And then he tweeted...
... "everybody hurts"

Wilful copyright violation, multiple infringing offences. Ladies and Gentlement, THIS is what a hardened criminal looks like. THIS is why LEOs need armored vehicles and LPR databases, in order to keep us SAFE from criminals like THIS serial offender. Notice the utter lack of remorse, the flagrant and deliberate flaunting of these LAW-BREAKING activities. Triple damages, throw the book, throw away the key. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you crims out there. Hardened criminals WILL BE caught, WILL BE punished, and we NEED laws like these to protect us from terrorists and children. Or something.
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2015 @ 7:05pm
  
  Re: And then he tweeted...
  When you are a member of the ruling class of Australia you are above the law.
  
  I'm still waiting for his political mates to be presented before a judge for their corrupt behaviour in handling illegal political donations from banned sources through their complex web of Liberal Party owned companies.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2015 @ 7:47pm

It is R.E.M. not REM.
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Sheogorath (profile), 4 Mar 2015 @ 2:59pm

He appeared confused about a tweet that said “The Premier hates Justin Bieber”.
"Yeah, of course I hate Justin Bieber. Who doesn’t hate Justin Bieber?”
Too bad, weepy teen
Oh, what does it mean
To be a diehard Belieber
And not get the guy of your dreams
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