Lessig's Remix had a very interesting intro. This article like the one we read in class is about plagiarism. This is more focused on plagiarism in the entertainment industry, particularly the music industry. In Chapter One, we follow the story of a woman named Stephanie Lenz. She recorded a video of her toddler dancing to a Prince song. A company that represented Prince, Universal Music, happened to stumble upon the video and immediately contacted YouTube (the website she posted the video on) to remove that video. YouTube complied but informed Mrs. Lenz who was outraged by the whole situation. She decided to fight back!
In this case, personally I think that Universal Music took this incident completely out of proportion and I think that Mrs. Lenz was right in fighting back. There is a different between plagiarism and using a product that has been put in the public eye for entertainment purposes. Mrs. Lenz was simply filming her toddler dance to a song that was playing in the background of their home. The main focus of the video was not the song but in fact the child dancing. Mrs. Lenz was in no way trying to copy Prince's song or distribute it unlawfully.
I think legally actions should be used when plagiarism is evident but in this case there was no clear evidence. Plagiarism is no way right but there is a difference between plagiarism and simple enjoyment of entertainment that is out in the public eye. So keep posting you videos of you singing a song by your favorite artist, just make sure that you acknowledge that you are in fact singing a song by that artist. Performing their work is fine as long as you give them credit for it. But, don't post videos of you dancing to any particular song because you could get sued for plagiarism.
I agree that Universal Music blew this way out of proportion. I also agree that it is important for artists to be given credit for their work. This was a good post.
ReplyDeleteJonna Illig
To agree with you and Jonna, Universal did take this out of context. You can't really hear the song to begin with and it was a personal video. Also, I agree that actions should only be taken when the plagiarism is evident and not just because there happens to be a certain song in the background or they used a song for an art piece. Legally, people need to really investigate before jumping to conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI think the main reason Universal made it such a big deal was to make an example. However this isnt fair and i agree with all of you that it wasn't handled correctly.
ReplyDeleteUniversal's actions were ridiculous. I'm sure that Prince is being ripped off much worse on plenty of places on the internet. A 30-second video should've been the least of his concerns. I agree with you Kelsey, they must've been trying to set an example, but there must be thousands of videos out on the internet that are of that length and quality I think they're wasting their time.
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