Warner Music Takes Down Popular Star Wars Acapella Video

from the but-why? dept

Warner Music Group sure does have a way of shooting itself in the foot repeatedly these days. The company, which keeps claiming that it's not as bad as the public makes it out to be, sure is working hard to suggest otherwise. You may recall that, beyond trying to institute a music tax (which is a bad idea) and suing any innovative startup that has anything to do with music, the company is also in the middle of a dispute with YouTube over how much money Google should pay Warner Music for any uploaded video that includes any bit of Warner Music Group music. This has served to piss off some of Warner's own musicians, and now it's pissing off fans as well -- whose anger (warning: that video is not even remotely safe for work if your speakers are turned on) is getting directed right back at Warner Music.

The latest, as sent in by Rose M. Welch, is that Warner appears to have taken down a super popular video of one guy, Corey Vidal, singing all parts to an amusing 4-part acappella tribute to Star Wars, to the tune of a number of different John Williams' songs. The actual acappella song is sung by a group called Moosebutter (who is not signed to Warner Music) and Corey's video of their song was done with Moosebutter's full support. You can still see Corey's video on other sites of course:

It's worth noting that this is not Corey's first battle with Warner Music. Last year, he apparently put up a video of him dancing to a short segment from a new song from Madonna... before the song was actually released. Warner Music had the video taken down -- even though Madonna herself apparently put up her own video saying she supported such fan-made videos. Either way, Corey filed a counternotice on the takedown, and since Warner Music failed to respond, the video was put back up.

It's not at all clear if this new takedown is related to the last one, but it's extremely difficult to see how Warner Music has the slightest claim here. The song is written and performed by Moosebutter, while the video was done by Corey, and while the song does use some melodies from John Williams songs, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone familiar with copyright law (other than, of course, entertainment industry IP lawyers) who doesn't think the song is pretty clear fair use. It's transformative, not derivative. It's a parody. It doesn't harm the commercial value of the original works. Moosebutter is also confused as to why it was just Corey's video taken down, when many others use the song as well. It's as if Warner Music purposely targeted the most popular viral video with this song in it. In fact, I'd argue the only harm done to the commercial value of Warner Music was done by Warner Music itself in having this video taken down. In the meantime, I've sent a note to the folks at Warner Music to get a comment... and will add it here should they ever reply. Update: We got an official "no comment." Glad they're really a part of the "conversation."

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Who's The Evil Empire In The Battle Over Who Owns The Rights To Storm Trooper Costumes?

from the is-this-really-worth-a-legal-fight? dept

And the latest in a never-ending line of ridiculous intellectual property lawsuits, apparently George Lucas is engaged in a battle over who owns the rights to the costume used by storm troopers in the Star Wars movies. It turns out that a guy named Andrew Ainsworth created the original costumes for Star Wars and feels that he therefore has the right to make, market and sell the costumes (which people apparently are buying). Lucas, on the other hand, insists that it's a part of Star Wars and is his intellectual property. To make this more fun, Ainsworth turned around and countersued, claiming not only that he owns the rights to the storm trooper outfit, but that Lucas owes him money for all the merchandising done over the years that involved storm trooper costumes. Frankly, both sides are being a bit ridiculous here, but that's what you get in a world where everyone is convinced that you can "own" something such as a movie costume.

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