Phoenix to label ‘You suck, remixing is awesome’ (or something like that.) - Archived

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Last year, copyright reform proponent Larry Lessig made a video that used a few seconds of the Phoenix song Liztomania. 

It was a shining example of fair use. artworks-000005045916-kec8g7-original

Phoenix’ label censored it off of youtube fairly quickly.

Phoenix was aghast. The EFF sued their label, and their label has paid an undisclosed sum to help the EFF keep things like this from happening in the future.

The coolest part, though, is this statement released today by Phoenix: 

We Support Fair Use of Our Music!

We were upset to find out that a lecture by professor Lawrence Lessig titled ‘Open’ was removed from YouTube without review, under the mistaken belief that it infringed our copyright interests.

This lecture about fair-use included -as examples- bits of spontaneous fan videos using our song Lisztomania.

Not only do we welcome the illustrative use of our music for educational purposes, but, more broadly, we encourage people getting inspired and making their own versions of our songs and videos and posting the result online.

One of the great beauties of the digital era is to liberate spontaneous creativity – it might be a chaotic space of free association but the contemporary experience of digital re-mediation is enormously liberating.

We don’t feel the least alienated by this; appropriation and recontextualization is a long-standing behavior that has just been made easier and more visible by the ubiquity of the internet.

In a few words: we absolutely support fair use of our music, and we can only encourage a new copyright policy that protects fair use as much as every creators’ legitimate interests.

So, fuck yeah! Go remix some Phoenix to celebrate.

Author: Andrew

The "brains" behind the operation. An absent minded, energetic, and often times overwhelming individual. He is in his early 20s. He discovered how amazing music could be in highschool, and has spent the last several years trying to absorb all of it. When he isn't writing about music, he is slinging code or playing vintage arcade games. Please don't ask him to dance. He doesn't like that.

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