Customer Reviews

Fair Use : The Story of the Letter U & the Numeral 2 (with CD)

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Negativland is a tape-music collective who have taken sampling and "creative excerpting" farther than anyone else. As such they have always lived on the border of legality, liberally appropriating huge chunks of the media frenzy swirling around all of us and spitting it back: digested, arranged and with new meaning.

In 1991 this got them sued, by the litigious Island Records, for parodying the Irish self-important rock band U2 without their permission. Unable financially to fight Island's lawyers head-on, Negativland and their then-label SST Records were forced into an abject surrender, pulling it off the market, destroying all unsold of all copies of the work, and giving up all rights to their own work.

It turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for Island. The negative publicity engendered by the suit cost them dearly, while Negativland became symbolic of the Davids standing up to corporate Goliaths.

Negativland began a long, 7-year campaign (as yet unsuccessful) to regain control of their piece, which now fetches an absurd $75 on the open market.

This book, in true Negativland fashion, reprints in excruciating detail the lawsuits, correspondence, print articles, public statements and private ruminations during this long ordeal. It makes for a fascinating glimpse into corporate America, as well as pointing up the anachronism of copyright laws in the Digital Age.

I couldn't put it down.

Fair Use--"a privilege in others than the owner of a copyright to use the copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without his consent, notwithstanding the monopoly granted to the owner."

The book chronicles the three year struggle of sonic pranksters Negativland, creators of inventive and often funny soundscape collages taking samples from music, radio, their own voices, and programmes against first Island Records and then SST, all for the right to enhance the right to see

In 1991, Negativland took 35 seconds from U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and created their usual collage around it. Another track replayed the melody through a computerized that made it kazoo-like and included of outtakes from Casey Kasem's American Top 40 radio programme, which had the respectable DJ cursing, using four-letter words, and a ranting tirade at the end. I first heard the Negativland U2 single at NMSU, having had it copied from a friend--thank you, Nicholas Kurtz!- and laughed my a** off upon hearing Kasem using the F word.

Instantly, Island Records jumped on Negativland's label, SST Records, demanding the withdrawal of the single, which they said misled buyers into thinking it was a new U2 record, because they didn't seek permission in sampling the song and violated copyright law, and because the profanities and mutilated version defamed U2's clean-cut image. Negativland was ordered to destroy all copies of their single and SST was ordered to pay Island nearly $30,000 in damages.

Negativland then left SST Records because label owner Greg Ginn, over a dispute over splitting costs of the lawsuit. Ginn wanted the group to front the whole amount. Negativland proposed a 50-50 split, plus royalties from their previous recordings to be deducted until their share was paid. Ginn then sued for copyright infringement on Negativland using the bumper sticker logo from SST. The whole thing was eventually settled out-of-court.

The band's role in this is mixed. The point is made to differentiate between U2 and Island Records, as the Edge had no quarrel with the parody version, and the point made of public perception that Island was suing SST on U2's behalf, whereas actually it was Island suing on their own behalf.

Casey Kasem was one of the last stumbling blocks, as he didn't like his outtakes being paraded, to have a negative image of himself. It wasn't until the Supreme Court's unanimous March 1994 ruling on Acuff/Rose Music Inc. vs Campbell, Campbell being Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew, who had done a parody version of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman," that cleared the final hurdles. Basically, the court, ruling in favour of Campbell, said that "unauthorized commercial parodies may be protected from penalties for copyright infringement." Both songs on the U2 single were eventually reissued in 2001 on Negativland's These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Sh-t?

This calls into question the efficacy of the legal system, where the courts assume plaintiff and defendant are equally powerful. What usually happens is that the more powerful entity wins because of more money, and for the weaker, simply knowing the law doesn't always help. In other words, the powerful sue just because they can.

But the wider issue is the concept of public domain vs private ownership, plus the dynamic that "the entire history of art forms has been based on theft." Sampling is good example of postmodern art, where artistic expression is reinterpreted, recontextualized within a new framework, causing the listener to rethink and reanalyze this new representation.

Detailed doesn't begin to describe this chronicle, as it's a compilation of magazine and newspaper ads, legal documents (lawsuits), letters, faxes, drawings, photos, interviews, all presented in chronological order. The appendix lists other fair use documents, such as the Supreme Court ruling on Acuff v. Campbell, the concurring opinion by Kennedy, an article on sampling as a postmodern art form, an interview with John Oswald, who became an earlier victim with his irreverent Plunderphonics album, and a transcript of both songs on the U2 single. One of the most important stories in the history of free expression.

Oh yes, and there's a CD, Dead Dog Records, which is a dizzying collage of sound, effects, looping, songs, and audio commentary mirroring the content of the book.

These days many artists and writers are interested in the legal notion of "fair use" which helps us understand just how much material we can use from other sources in our own work without legal problems. This particular book tells the story of two lawsuits involving the rock group Negativland and their parody of another rock group U2's song "I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For." The book takes you deep inside Negativland's legal, ethical, and artistic odyssey when it used a 35-second sample of U2's recording of the song and when it made a CD cover design that, at first glance, actually made Negativland's CD appear to be a new release of U2.

Under the "fair use" doctrine, unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted materials is permissible for such purposes as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. If duplicating a work or product is to fall within the bounds of fair use, the following four standards must usually be met:

1. The purpose and character of the use. For example, fair use is much easier to apply if the use is for such purposes as teaching or scholarship and is nonprofit.

2. The nature of the copyrighted work. For example, fair use sometimes suggests that teachers can make single copies of the following for use in research, instruction or preparation for teaching: book chapters; articles from periodicals or newspapers; short stories, essays or poems; and charts, graphs, diagrams, drawings, cartoons or pictures from books, periodicals, or newspapers in accordance with these guidelines.

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used. In most circumstances, copying the whole of a work cannot be considered fair use; copying a small portion may be if certain guidelines are followed.

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. If resulting economic loss to the copyright holder can be shown, even making a single copy of certain materials may be an infringement, and making multiple copies presents the danger of greater penalties.

The concept of "fair use" has particular interest to those of us involved in web page design, and I think this unusual book will appeal to a range of people: lawyers, artists, writers, musicians, web page designers, and those interested in free-speech issues.

The opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect any organization or company.

On FAIR USE, the CD, the sonic outlaws from Contra Costa county are once again aeons ahead of anyone else on the current musical specturm, including their numerous imitators. This '95 album is another patchwork of haunting, disturbing, and funky sound collages. The unifying theme is the band's legal hassles surrounding a certain sample pirated from a certain Irish rock band a few years prior, but this engaging piece transcends any sort of topicality as it explores an "industrial" music netherworld that Trent Reznor never dreamed of, pasting together "found sounds" and other mass-media flotsam in a post-dadaist frenzy. The real reason to shell out for this package, however, is FAIR USE the book, an exhasutive file of legal documents, press releases, images, and other miscellanea surrounding the aforementioned legal confrontation. It's design is aesthetically unique to say the least, and it's a "must-read" for anyone remotely interested in intellectual property issues and crookedness of the record industry (hip "indie" labels certainly included), or just looking for some wonderfully odd reading material. A total steal.

My fellow reviewers have fairly summed up this book. The larger issue that Negativland only hints at in FAIR USE is the concentrated, coordinated attempt by media corporations -- especially those associated with transindustrial media conglomerates as Island was with then-Warner Communications Inc. -- to destroy fair use. Negativland's collage of newspaper articles, memoranda, letters, etc., reminds us that democratic discourse is only possible when we can legally use the expressions and icons that constitute our culture. FAIR USE should be seen as an omen urging us to resist the expansion of corporate rights under copyright legislation.

This book is a winner. A document that shows the music industry for what it really is. It also shows how people manipulate media on all sides for their benefit or cause. It's detailed, extensive, and sometimes funny. This book goes beyond a simple documentation of who sued who and why. It's main message is to keep fighting for your integrity and ideas in the face of adversity with a sense of humor. This book should be used in copyright law courses and is an important part of US law, rock and roll, and punk rock history.

Oh, and the single the band got sued over is very funny too. Maybe U2 and Negativland should start a joint charity called "The Snuggles Foundation" with the proceeds going toward copyright law reform. Just sayin'.

Collage is a legitimate art form in every genre, excluding audio. It is considered legal fair use to borrow an artist's photography, video, and painting. Somehow these laws do not apply to samples of audio used as a collage. This book chronicles the lawsuits and events Negativland has been put through. This book really helps show the true hypocrisy of the record industry. Unless you feel that the creative process should be owned by the RIAA, read this book.

This is a run CD. I bought it in a record shop in Palo Alto. It is an ecample of well down seemless collage, made up of the flotsam and jetsam of the commericial most of us in the advanced and not so advanced world experience. It is very well down.

The blending of commericals is seemless, the characters taken on by the principals is great. Crossley Bendix really does sound like a fussy art critic. not someone playing.

It must be pointed out that DOn Joyce and friends can play rough. They lifted really nasty dialog from Casey Kassim, but it is real fun. it boils down to "how much privacy do you think the well off who make their money from most of us, especially many of us while teenagers, deserve.

Don Joyce and friends can be rough and ready, but almost of all there work is veru good. I miss the show (used to be played on KPFA 12 midmight to 5AM) on SUnday night, valle over the age.

I confess getting a giggle out of how the people who fall asleep to the NEw AGe Hearts of Space would be bolted into full rattled awakeness by OVER THE EDGE.

Fun, a littlr rough, and well done a message that needs to be said, someone should do this to the comic industry!!!---Steve