i'm doing a book report on kembrew mcleod's freedom of expression, and it's got me thinking copyrightcopyrightcopyright over and over and over.

negativland was one of my earliest experiences with copyright-envelope-pushing music. their battle with U2 is pretty interesting and a great example of copyright holders using litigation as a means of quieting free speech. it's pretty crazy when you think that this song, which CLEARLY falls under fair use or parody or something along those lines, ended up getting them in so much trouble, and eventually the copyright for it was in fact transferred to island records as some sort of settlement, simply because SST was no match for the deep legal pockets of island records.



one of my main problems with negativland is that a large chunk of their output is really elaborate critiques of modern copyright laws. i'm not saying this is a terrible earth shattering thing, but as i've learned from bringing up copyright in conversations with people, it's a terribly boring topic, and very difficult to make it seem interesting, fun, or relevant.



sometimes they come off as a audible, (only slightly) funnier adbusters:



HA! i had completely forgotten about this completely outlandish prank.



basically, the real story is that the band couldn't afford to take time off of their day jobs to tour, so they canceled the tour and blamed it on the FBI saying they couldn't tour since they were under suspicion as being related to this REAL MURDER. the whole ordeal is somewhat documented on their album helter stupid.