Chris Fahey writes:
quoted 7 lines If you steal an entire song and release it as your own record,> If you steal an entire song and release it as your own record,
> it could STILL be called original art even if it doesn't have anything
> at all added to it. Didn't the KLF do it to ABBA's Dancing Queen a long
> time ago? They just released it in it's entirety on a single... and got
> their asses sued. They don't call themselves the Kopyright Liberation
> Front for nothing you know. They were trying to bring attention to the
> stupidity of copyrights and to question the idea of originality.
oh dear dear dear....
first of all they weren't the klf then, they were the justified
ancients of mumu (aka the jams). second, the song had large bits of
abba in it but also had lots of original stuff. third, they weren't
trying to prove anything at that point, they were just having fun with
sampling and dance culture.
trying to use the jams/klf to prove any point is like trying to nail
jello. entertaining for a minute maybe, but ultimately futile.
quoted 2 lines Is Yo Yo Ma not an artist because> Is Yo Yo Ma not an artist because
> he does not compose his own music? Why is a DJ different?
it's only a problem if the dj claims to have written the music that he
plays.
quoted 4 lines Besides, to argue that an artist is bad because fans don't know> Besides, to argue that an artist is bad because fans don't know
> how the music was made is really misguided. You shouldn't base your
> opinion on other people's problems - you might miss out on something
> important.
i'm not one to claim that artists should pay for their samples or even
list them, but there's got to be a good faith effort to at least make
something NEW out of what you appropriate. otherwise you're just
doing "ice ice baby" again. and that would be bad.
--
Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com SpotMedia Communications
How the drunk and the maimed both are dragged forward out of the arena
like a boneless Christ, one man under each arm, feet dragging, eyes on
the aether. (David Foster Wallace/Infinite Jest)