It isn’t news that people seem to think that “on the Internet” equals “free for us to use in any way we see fit.”  It happened with NickMom.  It happened to Kristine and photos of her baby Cora who passed away from congenital heart disease.  It has even happened to both B and to myself with scrapers taking our content for their own uses.  This instance, however, is a bit bigger.

In 2006, a former computer programmer turned musician, Jonathan Coulton, wrote a cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.”  He made some major alterations including turning it into a light acoustic, almost folksy, song, including duck quacks where curse words might be, and changing a “Mix-A-Lot” reference to “Johnny C.”

Everything seemed to be fine until a fan of Coulton’s spotted his song on iTunes.  Not under his name, mind you, but as a song for an upcoming episode of Glee.  Furthermore, he didn’t appear to be credited.  Many people figured that there was some kind of mistake, but then the song played exactly the same on the episode itself.  And I mean, exactly the same.  It had the same melody, the same duck quacks (barely heard like someone tried to “scrub them out” but failed), and even the changed “Johnny C” lyrics.  Furthermore, Glee is selling “their version” on iTunes without crediting or publicly acknowledging Coulton in any way.

Sound Cloud even put up a comparison.  You can put on some headphones and listen to the two together.  I did and couldn’t tell them apart.

Coulton tried to get in touch with them and was told that he should be thankful for the “exposure.”  You know, that massive exposure that one gets when a big television show on a major network steals one’s work and doesn’t credit one in any way, shape, or form.  They claimed that they were within their legal rights to do what they did.

The kicker:  They might just be.  It turns out that, thanks to the complicated twists and turns of copyright law, If Artist A makes a song, Artist B makes a derivative work of that song, and Big TV Show C uses Artist B’s version, they just have to pay Artist A.  Jonathan Coulton’s only possible legal avenue centers around the possibility that Glee took his exact audio tracks and used those instead of recreating them.

You see, at one point, Jonathan released his source tracks for a Creative Commons fundraiser.  Some people believe that Glee took these tracks and used them for their own version.  The problem here is that the license they were released under was Non-commercial.  This means that I could take them and release a version of me singing to the song, but I can’t sell that version or use it in a commercial work.

You know, like a television show.

This situation is still developing and it isn’t clear whether Jonathan Coulton will get any credit or payment from Glee.  Since Coulton’s song was copied, many other artists have come forward (or have had their previous claims publicized more) about Glee ripping them off as well.

A television show about underdogs whose only recourse is their singing skills stealing from other artists and using their mega-corporation’s legal might to make sure that they can get away with it?  I’m not sure if that’s irony, but it is extremely repugnant.  It almost makes me want to start watching Glee just so I can quit watching in protest.  (Almost, but not quite.)

Instead, I think I’ll buy a song or two from Jonathan Coulton’s shop.  In fact, if I buy his newly released cover of Glee’s cover of his cover of Baby Got Back (that is to say, his original version), he’ll donate the proceeds to charity.  A very classy move by Jonathan Coulton in response to Glee’s much-less-than-classy move.

The bottom line here is the same as pretty much every case that I detailed in the beginning of this post.  Had Glee offered to pay Jonathan Coulton for permission to use his arrangement, he likely would have agreed.  Had they asked politely, not offering payment but only credit, he still might have agreed.  However, to take the arrangement, give no payment or credit, and try to claim that this gives the artist exposure is flat out wrong.  When it comes to copyright, the rule of thumb is “Ask permission first”, not “Seek forgiveness, not permission.”

Way back in the day, the sound that a cellphone made when it rang was set by the manufacturer.  You had the option of listening to it or turning it off.  Then, someone got the bright idea that cellphones should play bits of music when they rang. 

Fast forward to the present day and your average smart phone can play any MP3 file you throw at it as a ringtone.  This means your favorite song can announce that your spouse is calling you or Darth Vader’s theme song can declare that your in-laws are on the line.  (Not that I’d do that, of course!)

I’ve bounced from ringtone to ringtone over the years.  From Star Wars to the Muppets, each of them reflected some aspect of my geekiness.  My latest declared my love of Doctor Who.  In fact, it was the Doctor Who theme song.

Unfortunately, while the Doctor Who theme makes for a great song, it can be a bit grating as a ringtone.  Especially to B’s ears.  So I’m on the hunt for a new ringtone.  One that will express my geekiness but without causing B auditory discomfort.

I’ve already gone through the TARDIS sound (also annoying), a Dalek (B said that she’d EXTERMINATE me if I used it), and the sonic screwdriver (worse than the theme song).  For now, I’ve settled on "I Am The Doctor" which is the song that plays in some Doctor Who episodes as the peril comes to a head and The Doctor heads into the fray.  We’ll see if I keep this one or if it winds up replaced with something else.

What do you have set as your ringtone?  What geeky ringtone would you recommend?

Note: The "smartphone" image above is by zorro and is available from OpenClipArt.org.

Yesterday, I wrote about how NHL playing the drums and bells/xylophone.  When I was in school, I played a musical instrument also: violin.  I was never that good at it, though.  To play the violin, you need to draw the bow across the string while placing your fingers in just the right spots to make the correct note.  Doing this once might not be hard, but shifting strings/finger positions in rapid succession to play a song gets tricky.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Did you ever play an instrument?  If so, were you good at it?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #162

We recently discovered something about NHL.  He has a talent for music.  He began playing drums and bells (which I always just call xylophone) last year.  This year, though, he’s really hit his stride.

A few month’s back, while at B’s grandmother’s, NHL picked up a an electronic keyboard and began playing a song.  He had never actually played this instrument before so his ability to play a song astounded us.  Then, I realized what he was doing.  He took a song that he had learned on bells and mentally remapped the notes to the keyboard.  We later asked him to duplicate this feat on B’s parents’ piano and he was able to easily.

I help him out with band practice many times a week and I’ve seen the same thing happen with many songs.  He’ll play very slowly, struggling to find the right notes to hit.  Suddenly, a light will go off in his head and he’ll play the entire song perfectly without looking at a single note.  His teacher is impressed with his skill and we’re so proud of him.

And now, a special performance of Shoo Fly by NHL:

I love listening to music.  I’ll code websites while rocking out to Aerosmith.  I’ll kill an earworm by buying the song and playing it over and over.

I get my music from various sources.  Sometimes, I buy new CDs.  Sometimes, I buy used CDs. Sometimes, I buy digital music from Amazon.com.

Recently, given my Doctor Who obsession, I looked into getting some of the music from the show.  I stumbled upon eMusic, a site I’ve heard of before but never used, and noticed that the price for the Doctor Who album was much less.  Even better, I’d get a $25 credit for signing up.  This would be enough for the Doctor Who album plus one or two other albums.

As I signed up, though, I realized why I don’t buy music from there.  To get my credit – and to buy music at all – I needed to sign up for a monthly plan.  While I’ll buy a bunch of music every now and then, I don’t buy it often enough to justify a monthly fee.  So, for now, I’ll keep buying my music from Amazon’s MP3 store and from CD shops.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Where do you buy your music from?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Disclaimer: The "Music Icon" image above is by Minduka and is available through OpenClipArt.org.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #160