Sarkozy's Party Found Violating Copyright Yet Again With Awful Lipdub

from the isn't-that-three-strikes? dept

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been pushing himself as a defender of copyrights, and even helped create the original three strikes plan in France. And yet, he and his political party keep getting caught infringing on copyrights. First there was the use of a song in some online videos without proper licensing. Then there was the issue with mass pirating DVDs. So you would think that his party would be extra careful when putting together yet another online video involving music. Apparently not.

In a move that is being widely mocked even by those within Sarkozy's party, it has released a lipdub video using some UMP politicians singing along. The only problem? You guessed it... the party did not properly clear the rights and now need to pay up for infringing on the copyright (Google translation from the original French). Apparently, they had licensed the rights to the original version of the song, from 1976, but then decided they didn't like that recording, and instead used a modern version of the song. According to another report, the UMP had asked the copyright holder if it could use this version, and they were turned down, because the label did not want the song used for political purposes. So Sarkozy's party just used it anyway.

I wonder if Sarkozy can blame Vimeo for inventing "lip dubs" and encouraging the UMP to violate copyright laws in this manner. But, the real question remains: given that France has moved forward with Sarkozy's plan to kick infringers off the internet on a three strikes basis, and this appears to be at least Sarkozy's third strike, does the UMP have to give up their internet access? Or do Sarkozy's favored laws not apply to Sarkozy?

Filed Under: copyright, france, lip dubs, nicolas sarkozy

Vimeo Sued For Lip Dub Videos

from the ah,-copyright-law dept

Three years ago, video hosting site Vimeo got a lot of attention for itself with a "recruiting" video of sorts that was one of the first popular "lip dub" videos, which are now quite popular. In it, pretty much the entire Vimeo staff is seen singing and dancing to the song Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger. However, it looks like that particular lip dub may now get Vimeo, and parent firm InterActive Corp. in a bit of trouble. Copycense points us to a new lawsuit filed against Vimeo by Capitol Records (really, EMI) alleging copyright infringement. The way they're getting around the DMCA safe harbors and the Veoh ruling is pointing to Vimeo's own lip dubs and its apparent encouragement that others should make lip dubs as well. Of course, it's difficult to argue that lip dubs damage the labels in any way. The popular lip dubs seem to do a lot to expand the recognition of a song and an artist, and some musicians have been known to encourage such things. But, of course, that's not how the major record labels tend to view things...

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Filed Under: copyright, inducement, lip dubs
Companies: capitol records, emi, vimeo