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And this is why you tell them no.
“It’s just for internal use”
“Nobody else is ever going to see it, it will only be played once”
“Never mind the copyright, there’s no budget, there’s no time, it’s an old song and nobody will ever know”
And this is what you get:
https://www.spcawake.org/site/PageServer?pagename=LipDubVideo
In case that address gets taken down, here’s the digest version:
An Animal Welfare group made a “lip dub” video promoting taking a chance on pet adoption, using the iconic song by ABBA as their soundtrack. They posted it to YouTube. Actually, *someone* posted it . ABBA hunted them down like berzerker vikings with a take-down notice. In this excerpt from their web page, they try to justify their flouting of copyright, see if any of this sounds like some past client:
About this video:
A few months ago volunteers and staff came together to make a fun little lip dub video about taking a chance on adopting a shelter animal. We used a song called Take a Chance on Me from Abba, a Swedish pop group from the 1970s. A local production company did the entire thing at no cost because they are animal lovers. We played the video once at an SPCA event and then posted it on Youtube so that the 60 volunteers in the video could watch it.Then something completely unexpected happened.
People shared the video with friends and family and within the span of 6 days, 65,000 people had watched it on YouTube. We began getting emails from all over the United States and from across the world. People emailed us from Chile, from Japan, from Spain, from Bulgaria and more. And they all pretty much said the same thing: “Thank you for creating this video — it moved me, it inspired me, it lifted my spirits, it gave me hope, it made me feel like I’m not alone because I care about animals too.”At that point, we got a very cordial email from Sweden, from the original songwriter’s legal team, telling us that the song was being used commercially and would be removed from YouTube. Despite our assurances that the video was not a commercial and was similar to hundreds of other user-created YouTube videos using the same song and we would never air the video on TV, they still maintained it was too commerical.
Two things I wanted to point out here.
I’m an animal lover too, but the goodness of your cause doesn’t indemnify your actions in court. If you let a client browbeat you into a violation like this, there’s no telling how badly things may eventually go for you, especially since you’re a pro who is supposed to know better. I’ll wager a doggie biscuit the production company “donated” their services more to distance themselves from any resulting litigation, than to be generous.
Secondly. Whatever the “suits” put in the way, people will invent a way around the restrictions to get the things they want badly enough. What I found interesting was this evolution of a website/tool to let you “legally” do (assuming you own a copy of the ABBA song) what the ASPCA wanted to do in the first place, without *technically* violating the *letter* of the law.
Insert Futurama reference here from the head beaurocrat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou0lU8WMgo
So there you go, a dodge within the “letter” but not the “spirit”. And yes, I realize the irony of that last link.
This side by side browser strategy from the ASPCA link lets you mash-up any two sources together, like some folks used to do by playing Pink Floyd synched to “The Wizard Of Oz.”
Now, because people wanted to play this way, and YouTube and the copyright holders wouldn’t let them, we have a tool we can point a client to when they want to break copyright restrictions, and we have a tool that promotes creativity by mashing up unexpected combinations. What could YOU think of to mix together and then show someone? This is basically how MST3K evolved into Rifftrax.
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6 Replies
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[Mark Suszko] “…posted it on Youtube so that the 60 volunteers in the video could watch it.”
Sorry, but… DUMBASS!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Exactly. Internet “virginity” as it were, is very tenuous. It goes up one time, consider it out there forever. Invariably, something made for one, private showing WILL get out, unless you never give the client a copy, just play it in their presence, then walk away with it. And even then, not sure that’s being careful enough.
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It’s really simple.
They just forgot to put in their YouTube description “If you are not one of those original voluteers who were supposed to see this, please do not watch. Thank you.”
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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And THIS is why you also say no:
“We will only show it to family…”
Riiiiiiight.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
this is why its great to keep a guitar in the edit suite. “like this!?” 🙂
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Great to hear from the Grin Man again!
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