White House Wants To Make Illegal Video Streaming A Felony
Just when you thought maybe the United States was ready to take a leadership role in modernizing copyright laws for the digital age of mashup and remix culture, the White House takes a massive step backwards, with harsh proposals including felony status for illegal streaming of audio and video. Declan McCullagh reports for CNET:
The White House today proposed sweeping revisions to U.S. copyright law, including making “illegal streaming” of audio or video a federal felony and allowing FBI agents to wiretap suspected infringers.
In a 20-page white paper (PDF), the Obama administration called on the U.S. Congress to fix “deficiencies that could hinder enforcement” of intellectual property laws.
The report was prepared by Victoria Espinel, the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator who received Senate confirmation in December 2009, and represents a broad tightening of many forms of intellectual property law including ones that deal with counterfeit pharmaceuticals and overseas royalties for copyright…
The Gadaffi YouTube Video Craze
No self-respecting video mashup artist has ignored Mad Muammar Gadaffi it seems, with some great parody videos popping up on YouTube almost daily. A couple of my favorites are below, the Looney Tunes speech and a rockin’ Auto-Tuned remix of the Zenga Zenga song by Noy Alooshe. Enjoy ‘em!
Gregg Gillis A/K/A Girl Talk: Making Mashup Mainstream
Gregg Gillis a/k/a Girl Talk. Photo: Tom Purves (CC)
Profiled in 2009’s disinformation documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, is getting the “next big thing” treatment in the New York Times Magazine (incidentally, his new album is slamming and *free* at Illegal-art.net):
Imagine old, bald Pete Townshend shuffling gingerly onstage as a synth burbles up behind him — “Let My Love Open the Door.” Now imagine the rapper Pimp C already on that stage, in a white fur suit and hat, holding up four fingers to show off his bling. A kick line of girls in black minishorts walks it out for DJ Unk, who’s rapping about a kick line of girls, then Levon Helm appears on a drum riser to chirp out “The Weight.” Also onstage: Jay-Z, Black Sabbath, Rick Springfield, Kesha, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, the Ramones and Tupac and Biggie Smalls (both back from the…
Download Girl Talk’s New Album and ‘Rip: A Remix Manifesto’
All Day, the fourth album by mashup maestro Girl Talk, is his first album in two-plus years, and it’s available as a free download from his label’s official link. Fans should also check out Brett Gaylor’s mashup documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, which you can pay what you want to download.
The Big Lebowski Matrix Mashup Video
Ever wonder what it would be like to explain The Matrix to The Dude? Morpheus gives it his best.
The World Cup’s Effect on South Africa’s District 9…
A mashup of two films about South Africa: one you’ll surely recognize, the other is World Cup Soccer in Africa, distributed by Disinformation.
Snoop & Daft Punk In World Cup Star Wars Video Mashup
Following on the Star Wars theme (see my last post about the comeback of the Star Wars Kid), here’s an admittedly corporate but still excellent Star Wars Cantina mashup released just in time for the FIFA World Cup and featuring David Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Franz Beckenbauer, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Ciara, Jay Baruchel, and DJ Neil Armstrong. The gang at disinformation are skeptical about the benefits of the World Cup for South Africans, but on the other hand can’t wait to see the actual soccer…
Diary Of A Wimpy Vampire
A mashup too far? This blog is soon to be an actual book. Sample content:
Basically, I got the worst deal ever when I became a vampire. Every other vampire in history developed a supernatural level of attractiveness when they transformed. But not me. When I look in the mirror*, I just see a pasty, tired, fifteen-going-on-100-year-old looking back at me.
…
I sat next to Chloe today in Art and I could smell that she had type O- blood, which is rare but especially tasty (my dad calls it the champagne of blood). I told her about the goths, the tough gang and the popular gang, and she said she wouldn’t want to be in the popular gang anyway. She is a girl after my own heart. I told her about the rumour that Mr Byrne was a millionaire before he lost all his money and had to become an English teacher, and…
The Secret War Against Afghanistan’s Space Invaders
If only it was like a video game…
Lauren Davis writes on io9.com:
Adam Richardson has added pixelated alien invaders to actual war photos from Iraq and Afghanistan. And when the Space Invaders descend on a war zone, they find that they have more to contend with more than laser cannons.
100 Years of Big Content Fearing Technology — In Its Own Words
This is a great article on ars technica from Nate Anderson:
It’s almost a truism in the tech world that copyright owners reflexively oppose new inventions that do (or might) disrupt existing business models. But how many techies actually know what rightsholders have said and written for the last hundred years on the subject?
The anxious rhetoric around new technology is really quite shocking in its vehemence, from claims that the player piano will destroy musical taste and the “national throat” to concerns that the VCR is like the “Boston strangler” to claims that only Hollywood’s premier content could make the DTV transition a success. Most of it turned out to be absurd hyperbole, but it’s interesting to see just how consistent the words and the fears remain across more than a century of innovation and a host of very different devices.
So here they are, in their own words—the copyright holders who demanded…
Shatner/Beatles Mashup: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
As a Beatles fan, did read earlier in the week on the passing of Lucy Vodden at age 46, the inspiration behind the classic song.
If William Shatner had a chance to perform with the Fab Four, I hope Lucy would enjoy this:
