Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition

What actually happened with that? They used to have a
radioshow on KPFA. I mean other than making all my Negitvland
stuff collector's editions what happened to Negativland.
Last I looked they still had a website and many ongoing projects
it seems everytime they get "crushed" they do something
different.

Note well, in one of those weirdnesses of life I really admire
negativland but having met them once I can see were weren't the
types that were going to do lots of collaborative works.

Have Fun,
Sends Steve

P.S. Their website has a lot of goodies to download and play with…
Speaking of vanished projects, did anyone ever know what really ever
happened with the magazine "Grey Areas" which flourished for awhile
and then dissappeared?



> Hi all,
>
> Just in time for the holiday shopping season, I've opened an eBay
> auction for the Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition.
> Commemorating the infamous early-90s case in which U2's record label
> crushed indie noisemakers Negativland, this iPod is a U2 iPod that
> comes pre-loaded with lots of Negativland tunes, and some fancy box
> modifications. Experimental noise content trapped in a corporate
> megarock shell–oh, the humanity! Profits will go to Downhill Battle, a
> non-profit organization advocating for a less sucktastic music
> industry.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item"90680118
>
> F.
>
> +
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
>

Steve Kudlak wrote:

>
> What actually happened with that? They used to have a
> radioshow on KPFA. I mean other than making all my Negitvland
> stuff collector's editions what happened to Negativland.
> Last I looked they still had a website and many ongoing projects
> it seems everytime they get "crushed" they do something
> different.

You can't get the "U2" single legally anymore … The rights are, I think, owned by Island Records, and they decided to bury it.

I still can't be certain as to U2's involvement case. They'd maintained they weren't involved, when they talk about it at all, but then there's this funny exchange at a 2001 Duke Law conference, excerpted from this write-up ( http://64.233.161.104/search?qEche:yvw-YnXuV6kJ:www.law.duke.edu/framed/indy.pdf+negativland+u2+%22fuck+you%22&hl=en
):

"I was confused," [R.E.M. general counsel Bertis Downs] said. He sent a copy of the single to U2 because "they were my friends. I'd do it again." Then he added, "I use your book on Fair Use in my entertainment law course."

Video here: http://www.law.duke.edu/pd/mpeg1/public%20domain%203.mpg

When I was doing the work for this and chatting about with people I knew, one thing I discovered is that a lot of relatively clueful people have never heard of this case. That surprised me, though maybe it shouldn't have …

F.


>
> Note well, in one of those weirdnesses of life I really admire
> negativland but having met them once I can see were weren't the
> types that were going to do lots of collaborative works.
>
> Have Fun,
> Sends Steve
>
> P.S. Their website has a lot of goodies to download and play with…
> Speaking of vanished projects, did anyone ever know what really ever
> happened with the magazine "Grey Areas" which flourished for awhile
> and then dissappeared?
>
>
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Just in time for the holiday shopping season, I've opened an eBay
> > auction for the Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special
> Edition.
> > Commemorating the infamous early-90s case in which U2's record label
> > crushed indie noisemakers Negativland, this iPod is a U2 iPod that
> > comes pre-loaded with lots of Negativland tunes, and some fancy box
> > modifications. Experimental noise content trapped in a corporate
> > megarock shell–oh, the humanity! Profits will go to Downhill
> Battle, a
> > non-profit organization advocating for a less sucktastic music
> > industry.
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item"90680118
> >
> > F.
> >
> > +
> > -> post: [email protected]
> > -> questions: [email protected]
> > -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> > -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> > -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> > +
> > Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> > Membership Agreement available online at
> http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
> >
>
>
>

> Steve Kudlak wrote:
>
>>
>> What actually happened with that? They used to have a
>> radioshow on KPFA. I mean other than making all my Negitvland
>> stuff collector's editions what happened to Negativland.
>> Last I looked they still had a website and many ongoing projects
>> it seems everytime they get "crushed" they do something
>> different.
>
> You can't get the "U2" single legally anymore … The rights are, I think,
> owned by Island Records, and they decided to bury it.
>
> I still can't be certain as to U2's involvement case. They'd maintained
> they weren't involved, when they talk about it at all, but then there's
> this funny exchange at a 2001 Duke Law conference, excerpted from this
> write-up (
> http://64.233.161.104/search?qEche:yvw-YnXuV6kJ:www.law.duke.edu/framed/indy.pdf+negativland+u2+%22fuck+you%22&hl=en
> ):
>
> "I was confused," [R.E.M. general counsel Bertis Downs] said. He sent a
> copy of the single to U2 because "they were my friends. I'd do it again."
> Then he added, "I use your book on Fair Use in my entertainment law
> course."
>
> Video here: http://www.law.duke.edu/pd/mpeg1/public%20domain%203.mpg
>
> When I was doing the work for this and chatting about with people I knew,
> one thing I discovered is that a lot of relatively clueful people have
> never heard of this case. That surprised me, though maybe it shouldn't
> have …
>
> F.
>
>
>>
>> Note well, in one of those weirdnesses of life I really admire
>> negativland but having met them once I can see were weren't the
>> types that were going to do lots of collaborative works.
>>
>> Have Fun,
>> Sends Steve
>>
>> P.S. Their website has a lot of goodies to download and play with…
>> Speaking of vanished projects, did anyone ever know what really ever
>> happened with the magazine "Grey Areas" which flourished for awhile
>> and then dissappeared?
>>
>>
>>
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > Just in time for the holiday shopping season, I've opened an eBay
>> > auction for the Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special
>> Edition.
>> > Commemorating the infamous early-90s case in which U2's record label
>> > crushed indie noisemakers Negativland, this iPod is a U2 iPod that
>> > comes pre-loaded with lots of Negativland tunes, and some fancy box
>> > modifications. Experimental noise content trapped in a corporate
>> > megarock shell–oh, the humanity! Profits will go to Downhill
>> Battle, a
>> > non-profit organization advocating for a less sucktastic music
>> > industry.
>> >
>> > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item"90680118
>> >
>> > F.
>> >
>> > +
>> > -> post: [email protected]
>> > -> questions: [email protected]
>> > -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
>> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
>> > -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
>> > -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
>> > +
>> > Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
>> > Membership Agreement available online at
>> http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
>> >
>>
>>
>>
> +
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
>


Well it seems to be that way for a lot of people. I know that a
lot of people in the Bill of Rights Defense Community don't know
of the case of Buffalo Art Professor Steve Kurtz who Federal Prosecutors
initially wanted to charge with Bioterrorism for having some pretty
harmless microrganisms. They were going to use the Patriot Act to
get even more charges. Well that failed and as a consolatrion prize
they are trying to charge him and a friend at the Univerity of Pittsburgh
with mail fraud. Now in his case it maybe because his lawyer told him
to shut up and not talk to anybody. Lawyers do that a lot.

The whole case with U2 show the sad state of affairs. I mean it is not
like U2 was actually hurt by aby of this. I mean rock musicians on a major
label still do make money hand over fist and "indie rockers" U2 are very
rich folks. So most people have trouble being sympathetic to them.

It would be nice if we could figure a way to reward artists in some way that
didn't turn a few people into very rich people and leave the majority of
artists in the poor and struggling category. We then make up little sayings
like "An artist does his best work while hungry" to assauge our guilt.

What is odd is tbat Negativland so throughly transforms the work
of those they sample from that they are hardly copying. For me I would
hope that artists started by accepting Paypal or something, or putting
up little signs that said donations would be accepted at such and such
an address.


Have Fun,
Sends Steve

On Wednesday, December 01, 2004, at 04:46PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

>It would be nice if we could figure a way to reward artists in some way that
>didn't turn a few people into very rich people and leave the majority of
>artists in the poor and struggling category.

http://www.tfisher.org/PTK.htm

And a slightly different take on the same system:

http://www.free-culture.cc

I'd be interested to see what Rhizomers think of Alternative Compensation Systems for music, and whether they can see any way of them being extended to art or performance.

- Rob.

Steve Kudlak wrote:

> The whole case with U2 show the sad state of affairs. I mean it is not
> like U2 was actually hurt by aby of this. I mean rock musicians on a
> major
> label still do make money hand over fist and "indie rockers" U2 are
> very
> rich folks. So most people have trouble being sympathetic to them.

One of the things I think is interesting, too, is that some people who know about it write it off by saying U2 didn't initiate the lawsuit, so it's not like they have any responsibility. Which comes down to how you conceive of responsibility in the first place. If U2 had no say in the matter, and Island was just doing it on their behalf, U2 is still responsible in my book. Just like I'm personally culpable, to some extent, for the deaths of Iraqi children even though I openly opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq. That's something that's being done in _my_ name.

U2 has a chance to fix this: They could, for example, come out strongly for remix rights, and they could compensate Negativland for legal costs, which would barely make a dent in their personal wealth. But people don't expect that of rock stars, because rock stars feed into this adolescent guy fantasy of four guys touring the country in a van, no responsibilities, just free on the open road … of course, when you're at the level of U2, rock 'n' roll is basically another industry, and every sort of industry has its own toxic waste that it tries to dump when you're not looking.

F.