Congress Resolves To Create Stronger Copyright Laws In Honor Of Famous DJ Who Won First 'Remix' Grammy

from the missing-the-point-by-a-wide-wide-margin dept

Wed, Jun 10th 2015 9:35am — Mike Masnick

Via Parker Higgins, we learn that Congressional Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee submitted a House Resolution honoring Frankie Knuckles, the pioneering House DJ (and, here, we no longer mean "House of Representatives") who passed away last year. Such resolutions are pretty typical and a nice honor, if fairly meaningless overall. Still, it seems somewhat bizarre that in a resolution honoring Knuckles, who won the first ever "Remixer of the Year" Grammy back in 1998, that Jackson-Lee used it as a reason to argue for stronger copyright protections:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) applauds the contributions made by the House music genre and artists such as Frankie Knuckles to the culture of the United States;

(2) supports the designation of a national day of recognition for Chicago House music pioneer Frankie Knuckles;

(3) recommits itself to ensuring that musical artists such as Frankie Knuckles receive fair protection under the copyright laws of the United States;

(4) endeavors to support the protection of House music artists’ content globally; and

(5) directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to transmit enrolled copies of this resolution to Frankie Knuckles, or his assignee.

One might argue that when she says "fair protection under copyright laws" she means stronger fair use protections enabling people like Knuckles to more easily remix the works of others into wonderful new works, without needing permission or licenses -- but that seems... unlikely. Either way, it seems fairly bizarre that you'd use someone who revolutionized an entire area of music through remixing others' works in new and creative ways as an example for the need for "copyright protection."

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: congress, copyright, frankie knuckles, house music, remix, sheila jackson-lee

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Doubleplus Good Musician, 10 Jun 2015 @ 9:38am

We have always been allies with - I mean, we have always been at war with the remixers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2015 @ 9:42am

They like his work so much that they don't want to allow anyone else that opportunity.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 9:56am

I vote that we give her an award.
I believe that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee has demonstrated far and above the fundamental requirements for winning this years "Cognitive Dissonance in Action" trophy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Violated (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 10:04am

Let me correct...

(3) recommits itself to ensuring that [deceased] musical artists such as Frankie Knuckles receive fair protection under the copyright laws of the United States [while we fail to admit that Frankie Knuckles has no use for food, drink, air or copyright protection in his current state];

If they love the guy so much they should have his house music played in Congress 24/7 when such a heavy beat will sure liven up common debates.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DannyB (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 10:05am

The United States Congress Honors your Achievement
The United States Congress Honors your Achievement by making regulations to ensure that nobody else will ever again be able to achieve the same thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Christopher (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 10:30am

Dust Brothers are laughing (on the inside)
Paul's Boutique should be the name of the Grammy awarded to any remix worthy each year.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2015 @ 10:59am

Re: Dust Brothers are laughing (on the inside)
I 2nd that motion
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2015 @ 11:17am

How sad is it
It is a sad state of affairs when an official makes a statement which is exactly the correct and logical thing to say, but their previous behaviors have forced us to assume that their belief, their meaning, and their intention is exactly the opposite.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2015 @ 11:36am

She's just trying to find any excuse to please Hollywood.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Groaker (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 12:42pm

More welfare for attorneys. Undoubtedly we can return to the days of the Puritans when everyone was suing everyone else over everything.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Killer_Tofu (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 1:08pm

Incentives!
But, but, without stronger copyright protections, how is Congress going to encourage Frankie to continue creating? Surely if the incentives were just a little bit more, and a little more crazy, certainly he wouldn't have died yet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2015 @ 2:45pm

Re:
...they should have his house music played in Congress 24/7 when such a heavy beat will sure liven up common debates...

That will probably happen like the "floor speeches" you see on CSPAN. Ever wonder why the camera(s) don't move around? It's because there's nobody in the chamber!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
saulgoode (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 3:27pm

Congressional necromancy
Especially so since her bill actually recommends send a copy of the resolution to the deceased artist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David, 10 Jun 2015 @ 3:52pm

Re: Congressional necromancy
If royalties are an incentive for an artist to create new works up to 90 years after his death, I don't see why sending him a copy of the resolution should not make him dance on his grave.

Right now his corpse has probably not even reached the pinnacle of his creativity.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
SteveMB (profile), 10 Jun 2015 @ 4:47pm

Re: I vote that we give her an award.
Her trophy should reference highlights from her public record, such as a little diorama of Neil Armstrong planting the flag on Mars and a quadricentennial edition of the U.S. Constitution.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pixelation, 10 Jun 2015 @ 7:16pm

Got to see Frankie Knuckles spin. It was entertaining. The electronic music world would be screwed without fair use. It's all about the remix.
[ link to this | view in thread ]