"Grey Tuesday" Civil Disobedience Planned February 24th Against Copyright Cartel
DOWNHILL BATTLE (February 18, 2004) -- A coalition of websites will join in an online protest to offer free downloads of a critically acclaimed album that is being censored by a lawsuit threat from EMI Records. The action is an act of civil disobedience against a copyright regime that routinely suppresses musical innovation. The Grey Album, which remixes Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album, has been hailed as a innovative hip-hop triumph, but EMI sent cease-and-desist letters to any record store that stocked it. This Tuesday ("Grey Tuesday") the coalition of sites will offer free downloads of the Grey Album, and turn their pages grey, to take a stand against a copyright regime that serves neither musicians nor the public interest.
Any site can get information on how to join the action at www.greytuesday.org
"Grey Tuesday will be the first protest of its kind," said Downhill Battle co-founder Holmes Wilson, "The major record labels have turned copyright law into a weapon, but participants in this action will be ignoring EMI's threats and insisting on the public's right to hear innovative new music."
"EMI isn't looking for compensation, they're trying to ban a work of art," said Downhill Battle's Rebecca Laurie. "The record industry has become a huge drag on creativity and it's only getting worse--it's time to take a stand."
The Grey Album has been widely shared on filesharing networks such as Kazaa and Soulseek, and has garnered critical acclaim in Rolling Stone (which called it "the ultimate remix record" and "an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time"), the New Yorker, the Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album of the year), and other major news outlets.
"It's clear that this work devalues neither of the originals. There is no legitimate artistic or economic reason to ban this record’?"this is just arbitrary exertion of control," said Nicholas Reville, Downhill Battle co-founder. "The framers of the constitution created copyright to promote innovation and creativity. A handful of corporations have radically perverted that purpose for their own narrow self interest, and now the public is fighting back."
The reporters and news outlets that reviewed the Grey Album have obtained it illegally from filesharing networks. "If music reviewers have to break the law to hear new, innovative music, then something has gone wrong with the law," said Laurie.
"Remixes and pastiche are a defining aesthetic of our era. How will artists continue to work if corporations can outlaw what they do?" said Reville. "Artists, writers, and musicians have always borrowed and built upon each other's work’?" now they have to answer to corporate legal teams."
College and noncommercial radio stations will also be participating in Tuesday's action by playing the Grey Album in its entirety (possibly along with the Jay-Z and Beatles sources).
Contact:
Holmes Wilson - hw at downhillbattle.org Nicholas Reville - npr at downhillbattle.org Downhill Battle (www.dowhillbattle.org) Grey Tuesday (www.greytuesday.org) Phone: 508-963-7832 / Fax: 775-878-0379
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Historic Online Protest : It's time for music fans to stand up and demand change from the music industry's copyright cartel.
Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.
DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone ("an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time") and the Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.
Danger Mouse's album is one of the most "respectful" and undeniably positive examples of sampling; it honors both the Beatles and Jay-Z. Yet the lawyers and bureaucrats at EMI have shown zero flexibility and not a glimmer of interest in the artistic significance of this work. And without a clearly defined right to sample (e.g. compulsory licensing), the five major record labels will continue to use copyright in a reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that limits and erodes creativity. Their actions are also self-defeating: good new music is being created that people want to buy, but the major labels are so obsessed with hoarding their copyrights that they are literally turning customers away.
This first-of-its-kind protest signals a refusal to let major label lawyers control what musicians can create and what the public can hear. The Grey Album is only one of the thousands of legitimate and valuable efforts that have been stifled by the record industry-- not to mention the ones that were never even attempted because of the current legal climate. We cannot allow these corporations to continue censoring art; we need common-sense reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal and practical for artists.
The Grey Tuesday protest is being organized by Downhill Battle, a music activism project that has no affiliation with Danger Mouse.
Sites Participating in the Protest
Updated Sunday evening. If you plan to include your site in the protest, send an email to greytuesday at downhillbattle.org and we'll add you to the list. More information is on the sidebar.
SITES THAT WILL HOST THE GREY ALBUM ON FEB 24
90% Crud - www.george.hotelling.net/ 113b.tk - www.113b.tk 860design.com - www.860design.com Ai-em.net - www.ai-em.net A Whole Nother Studio - www.awholenotherstudio.com albumgeek.com - www.albumgeek.com All In This Together - www.inthistogether.net Allure Promotions - www.allurepromotions.tk angryguy.org - www.angryguy.org arellanes.com - www.arellanes.com Aural Delight - www.auraldelight.net BarfBarfMarina - www.cigarettesandwater.com/bbm balderstone.ca - www.balderstone.ca beatsareus.com - www.beatsareus.com blueskin.bloguje.cz - www.blueskin.bloguje.cz bluetack.co.uk - www.bluetack.co.uk BobbyBurbank.com - www.BobbyBurbank.com Bracha Goleshet - www.goleshet.com burntchicken.com - www.burntchicken.com chezlubacov.org - www.chezlubacov.org crashingjets.nu - www.crashingjets.nu cscott.net - www.cscott.net dabeatz.com - www.dabeatz.com Damn Your Ayes - www.dya.manxblogs.co.uk/ danwinckler.com - www.danwinckler.com death-watch.com - www.death-watch.com/thegreyalbum deepsea.force9.co.uk - www.deepsea.force9.co.uk deliciousentertainmentmusic.com - www.deliciousentertainmentmusic.com denyerec.co.uk - www.denyerec.co.uk Discarnate - www.discarnate.org desktopsareus.com - www.desktopsareus.com diggastyle.com - www.diggastyle.com Digispace Records - www.digispacerecords.com/ Downhill Battle - www.downhillbattle.org druhkram.com - www.druhkram.com EdgeEye - www.edgeeye.com edverb.com - www.edverb.com Everichon - www.everichon.com Ewawoowa - www.ewawoowa.com/ewawoowa/ f2sys.net - www.f2sys.net Fatal Mistake - www.fatal-mistake.net fatherstorm.com - www.fatherstorm.com Filters Magazine - www.filtersmag.com fourstones.net - www.fourstones.net francisco.terawap.co.uk - www.francisco.terawap.co.uk/grey_album/ franklet.com - www.franklet.com G.A.ME - www.kickgame.com Gentle Jones - www.gentlejones.com gether.org.uk - www.gether.org.uk gomercentral.com - www.gomercentral.com green-blue.org - www.green-blue.org grey.servemp3.com - www.grey.servemp3.com/~grey greytuesday.holotone.net - www.greytuesday.holotone.net HipHopMag.com - www.HipHopMag.com Horklog - www.horkulated.com/index.php In My Room - www.inmyroom.omnihosts.net/blog indexconcept.com - www.indexconcept.com Industrial Something - www.industrialsomething.org Ingenuitous - www.ingentious.com insanefame.com - www.insanefame.com jeweledplatypus.org - www.jeweledplatypus.org joegrossberg.com - www.joegrossberg.com Judolight - www.thejudomadonna.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2 j-san.net - www.j-san.net keepitonthedownload.com - www.keepitonthedownload.com Kunfuzed Mynds - www.kunfuzedmynds.com laslo.co.uk - www.laslo.co.uk littleeyeontheworld.com - www.littleeyeontheworld.com losratones.com - www.losratones.com lwray.mit.edu - www.lwray.mit.edu Lyrical War - www.lyricalwar.com (M) Productions - www.m-productions.org
(etc.)