Which Crazy Copyright Holder Took Down Katie Ledecky/Carlos Santana 'Smooth' Mashup First?

from the who-gets-the-gold? dept

By now you've probably seen or heard about the somewhat amazing world record and race victory by swimmer Katie Ledecky in the 800 meter freestyle, in which she came in first by a rather astounding 11.38 seconds. There are some photos floating around showing her basically all by herself in the pool:
Of course, since you can't actually show any video anywhere, the NY Times created a graphic representation of Ledecky's amazing race showing just how dominant it was:
It seems kinda pointless that you can't use the actual video for that, but welcome to a world where intellectual property locks down everything.

Either way, various people were creating other ways of showing all this, and a guy named Jimmy Donofrio created a video that I think showed the end of the race synced up to the opening of the famous song "Smooth" by Carlos Santana, featuring Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas. You've heard the song. It's basically impossible for anyone to not have heard this song (or at least that opening guitar riff) at some point since it was released in 1999. Apparently, if you start the song just as Ledecky finishes, it gets all the way through the opening and up to Thomas saying, "Man it's a hot one...." before the 2nd place finisher touches the wall. The mashup video started to go viral. MTV News reported on how awesome it was.

But, if you go to that tweet now this is what you see:
Someone -- either the Olympics or whoever holds the copyright to the song -- issued a takedown. This is ridiculous. The use here was almost certainly fair use. But when you have two of the most aggressive copyright aggressors around -- record labels and the Olympics -- I guess it's no surprise that they would ignore fair use and take down content like this, which is the kind of content that would likely only get more people interested in either the Olympics or the music. But, no, copyright is apparently more important than that.

Separately, it's disappointing and somewhat ridiculous that Twitter agreed to take this down. I get that it doesn't want to lose any DMCA safe harbors -- and perhaps it doesn't want to piss off the Olympics -- but seriously, get a backbone and stand up for fair use.
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Filed Under: carlos santana, copyright, fair use, jimmy donofrio, katie ledecky, rob thomas, smooth, takedowns, the olympics
Companies: olympics, twitter


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:06am

    Ad hominem

    Mike, ur on twitter accusing others of "personal ad hominem attacks" on you but continue to use insults and name-calling as a routine part of your schtick here ("crazy copyright holder"). Just sayin'

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:11am

    I'd like to know what happens when there are many different copyright holders, such as a songwriter and record label on the audio portion, and another one or two on the video portion -- in a situation when most of them want to monetize a video but one demands a DMCA takedown, thereby taking money out of the pockets of the other copyright co-holders?

    How are such issues settled?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Rich, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:12am

    Re: Ad hominem

    I don't think you understand the meaning of "ad hominem." For one thing, "insults and name-calling" are not, in and of themselves, ad hominems.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:16am

    Wow, I remember that song. back when it came out, all the radio stations played it zillions of times. Not quite as ridiculously over-played as that horrible thing from Titanic, but... yeah.

    Despite that, between the singer's tendency to mumble and the intelligible parts being a big jumble of word salad, no matter how many times I heard it I never did attain the slightest idea of what the song is actually about, beyond "gimme your heart, make it real, or else forget about it."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:19am

    Re: Ad hominem

    Would you prefer 'short-sighted'? 'Too greedy for their own good'? How else would you refer to someone who demanded the removal of something that only stood to benefit them with additional interest in their music/event?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Adam, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:22am

    Are we?

    Are we still talking Olympics? The organization that's made itself irrelevant...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Michael, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:44am

    Re: Re: Ad hominem

    I am going to agree with the OP here.

    We need to stop insulting people with mental disorders by calling record executives "crazy". Crazy people do not deserve to be insulted like that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Michael, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:47am

    Re:

    The record label controls all of it.

    They own everything.

    Stop trying to steal from them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    I.T. Guy, 15 Aug 2016 @ 11:48am

    Re: Ad hominem

    Would you not describe someone trying to jump off a bridge as crazy?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    Ninja (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:03pm

    I think the video meant to show how much faster than the IOC/labels Katie is. She got over 10 second ahead of the DMCA takedown! Shame on you, copyright holders, shame o you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:04pm

    Re:

    oh, you mean lyrics might have some message, some content or import beyond mere sound ?
    huh, who knew, since you cant understand 75-80% of the lyrics, and most of what you can understand is fluff, or pointless, or me-Me-ME!!!!!
    now, get off my song !!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:14pm

    Re: Ad hominem

    You have no idea what ad hominem is. Just sayin'

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:36pm

    Re: Re:

    Yes, most songs have some sort of message or meaning. A good number of them even tell some sort of story.

    And then you've got meaningless jumbles of word salad like this one and American Pie.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:43pm

    Re: Ad hominem

    Mike, ur on twitter accusing others of "personal ad hominem attacks" on you but continue to use insults and name-calling as a routine part of your schtick here ("crazy copyright holder"). Just sayin'

    That's not an ad hominem.

    You should learn what words mean.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 12:56pm

    By now you've probably seen or heard about the somewhat amazing world record and race victory by swimmer Katie Ledecky in the 800 meter freestyle,

    Well I have now.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 1:04pm

    Re: Re: Re: Ad hominem

    That's fair, people with mental disorders have it bad enough without being lumped in with record execs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. icon
    Padpaw (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 1:05pm

    Re:

    jim sterling on youtube has an interesting idea of how to force this issue into the light.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK8i6aMG9VM&index=20&list=PLlRceUcRZcK0E1Id3NHchFaxikv CvAVQe

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 1:10pm

    All a matter of incentives

    Separately, it's disappointing and somewhat ridiculous that Twitter agreed to take this down. I get that it doesn't want to lose any DMCA safe harbors -- and perhaps it doesn't want to piss off the Olympics -- but seriously, get a backbone and stand up for fair use.

    Growing a backbone with regards to the DMCA opens you up the possibility of insanely expensive legal fees and fines, whereas caving has no penalty whatsoever. The incentives provided by the law are entirely on the side of content removal, while the penalties are entirely on the side of keeping content up, so it's not surprising that most companies and individuals would weight the two options and go with the first more often than not, as taking the route of content removal is the much safer option.

    It may be disappointing and disgusting that so many companies simply fold any time a DMCA claim is made, but with the law written to be entirely one-sided it should never be surprising, as it's working entirely as designed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 3:15pm

    Repost it...

    Let's have someone repost the video with the music changed to Happy Birthday. Then the IOC can get on with issuing the takedown.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2016 @ 4:08pm

    Re: Re: Ad hominem

    forget adding hominem, needs more cowbell...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. icon
    Atkray (profile), 15 Aug 2016 @ 5:21pm

    Re: Re: Ad hominem

    Mike,

    Learning what words mean would require reading. Not sure AC has unlocked that particular skill yet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2016 @ 6:18am

    Well, they've succeed, I no longer care.

    Olympics? What Olympics, all I see are barriers, obviously they they don't want anyone to know about it. Guess I'll just read a book or something

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    First of All, 16 Aug 2016 @ 9:56am

    Get rid of all the lawyers

    I guarantee it was a lawyer who took this video down. Carlos would not have minded.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2016 @ 10:00am

    Re: Get rid of all the lawyers

    Yeah, they do hang on every truly creative artist's ass like the bloodsuckers they are.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2016 @ 10:06am

    Re: Re: Get rid of all the lawyers

    Maybe we could make it a crime to be a lawyer!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2016 @ 10:11am

    Re: Re:

    The high demands labels place on their artists are unconscienable and should never stand up in court except for the bias which is already ruining the justice system.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2016 @ 10:19am

    Re: Re: Get rid of all the lawyers

    Its not as if the video poster was using the song to make money off of it. That money from commercial use of Carlos's songs goes straight into the pockets of lawyers. THAT MAKES ME SSSICK!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. identicon
    Lastly, 16 Aug 2016 @ 10:38am

    Re: Re: Re: Get rid of all the lawyers

    Carlos get what? $.03 for each play with which to divy out to his entire band and crew? HA that is a travisty.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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