Sunday, October 21, 2007

You too can find what you're looking for -- maybe more Music business, creativity and copyright A conversation last night about media property rights and fair use sent me online looking for Negativland's writings on the subject... more than a dozen years old, but still thought proving... Double warning about objectionable language: There are many four-letter words in the controversial 1991 recording that started it all. There are longer and expensive words in the legal briefs that followed... alluded to in this interview and transcribed in the book FAIR USE: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2. (Although not traditional journalism, the interview is also useful in class discussions of reporters' ethics.) Serendipity department: Along with those classics, I found these recent and related articles, including an interview that brings Jon Stewart into the discussion... RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000 Negativland Kicks Out the Culture Jams With Favorite Things Negativland Q&A: In the Future, Nothing Will Remain Intact Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk: And what do you think of blockbusters like The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, who mash C-SPAN footage and other snoozy political crap into hilarious new packages? Has hyper-reality come of age at last? Negativland's Mark Hosler: We kinda had this idea back in the early '90s that collage would become one of the next millennium's pre-eminent styles and art forms, and that the kind of work we were doing, which seemed so transgressive and edgy at the time, would one day become a very normal mainstream art practice. With the explosion of mashups and collage in the last five years or so, I think we are seeing this come true. It's pretty wild. And what's not to love about two TV shows that essentially teach media literacy? They're great. Ironic juxtaposition department: The original U2 song, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for," could be a theme for Google. So I did a quick search... Results included the music video and lyrics -- surrounded by ads for Jesus, Viagra and Zwinky. (Now there's a name for an intellectual property law partnership!) For more background, try this Wikipedia page. (Being an openly editable wiki, that essay could have changed substantially when you click the link. But maybe not.) Note: This blog receives no compensation from and does not endorse any of the advertisers mentioned in the image clips shown.  Unsolicited free samples will be returned to the manufacturer. 1:55:37 PM    comment []

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