October 15, 2005

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

I apologize for reminding everyone about the horrific election we had here in the states last year, but you may recall that roughly a year ago the people at JibJab made a hoakey video about President Bush and John Kerry set to the tune of "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. As you also may recall, Ludlow Music, who owned the copyright for the song, filed a ridiculous lawsuit against JibJab for not obtaining proper permission to use the music. JibJab ended up hiring the wonderful people at the EFF to help defend their right to fair use and argued in their pleading that:

Bushy_4_1"(Ludlow Music's threats) have jeopardized (JibJab's) First Amendment-protected right to free speech and its right to disseminate that speech via its Internet hosting facilities. (JibJab) therefore seeks a judgment that its artistic expression is protected by the First Amendment and copyright's fair use doctrine, before that expression is silenced by (Ludlow's) threats."

Inexplicably, as noted by the people at the Berkeley Intellectual Property Weblog, it appears that the Jib Jab people have now turned around and sent a cease and desist letter to The Black Lantern for using 9 non-contiguous seconds of the "This Land" video in his mashup of the Legendary KO's "George Bush doesn’t like Black People". To make matters even more surreal, JibJab's lawyers in the case  (Goldring, Hertz, Lichtenstein & Haft) like to collect "Bill of Rights" awards from the ACLU in their spare time (clearly these awards only honor amendments 2 through 10).

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September 12, 2005

It Was Only a Matter of Time…

Beyonce_001_1 This past Friday, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about Saatchi & Saatchi’s new “content arm” called GUM:

"In an effort to reach young people who increasingly tune out traditional advertising, London ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi is offering marketers an unusual proposition- the opportunity to own their own hip-hop band as a way to spread their advertising messages.

Saatchi & Saatchi said it assembled that as-yet-unnamed band as part of its launch yesterday of a division it is calling GUM, which will target teenagers and people in their 20s for advertising disguised as entertainment.

Saatchi & Saatchi said it is offering potential advertisers naming rights for the all female band, or the chance to have their products appear in the band’s music videos or on stage with it.”

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Logo-Rama 2005

  • Winner (T-shirt): Gregory Jacobsen
    We received such an outpouring of extraordinary listener artwork submissions for our recent logo design contest that we just couldn't keep it all to ourselves.

    Hold your champagne glass high, extend your pinky, turn up your nose, and take a stroll through this gallery of WFMU-centric works from the modern era.