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SURFPUNK Technical Journal 025
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 19:20:57 PST
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From: cocot@osc.versant.com (gur fhcreabezny rznvy fbpvrgl)
To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
Subject: [surfpunk-0025] NOIZIK: SST RECORDS SUES NEGATIVLAND FOR REVENGE
Keywords: surfpunk, Negativland, SST, Island, WAX
| The planet had vanished,
| leaving its weather behind.
| -- WAX
|____________________________________
Last night MonaQ and I saw the movie ``WAX or the Discovery of
Television among the Bees'' in san francisco. [It was blurbed in
surfpunk-0024.] I'm going to try the word "steampunk" on it; it's got
a lot of that old-world feeling in it. The movie is a collage of video
glued together by our hiro's deadpan narration. Lots of the images are
early twentieth century, and a lot of the technology stuff is like
sixties. It's really creative and really different from any other VR
fiction I've seen/read. Our hiro lives in his own virtual reality, not
based on our 90's idea of virtual reality, but rather on his job
writing primitive flight simulator animation for NASA in what looks
like the 60's, and the fact that he wears a beekeepers outfit
everywhere he goes. Instead of datagloves and goggles, it's the
beekeeper screen around his head and bulky white bee beekeeper clothing
and the otherworldish narration that gives him the aura of not being in
the same reality as the viewers. The relationship between him and the
bees reminds me of the fascination between Lovecraft's hiros and
Lovecraft's gods -- he keeps disassembling his beehive and just
watching the bees, in a kind of meditative, sacremental procedure. The
bees seem to speak directly to his brain via something called "bee
television" that he frequently sees, but that I've only seen during
real long weekend latenite hacking sessions ....
If you like wierd things, really wierd things, seek this film out.
If you don't like wierd things because you don't get them, don't bother.
NOW FOR NEGATIVLAND: Last month's news, as far as I've heard. Thanks
to Chris Milam <wittsend.atl.ga.us!s827!bwilab3!milam> for these
fragments. Several of us surfpunkers saw them in Athens last in
November, and at that point, Mark Hosler seemed to think things
were going pretty well, and that if Casey Kasem would give in, they'd
be back in operation. Well, things change quickly for Negativland.
I've reordered this material to move newer stuff to the top. Older
stuff follows. Some of the commentary may be broken by this move.
--strick
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Here is the newsletter:
NEGATIVLAND'S CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER 1992
***************************************************
SST RECORDS SUES NEGATIVLAND FOR REVENGE;
GROUP HALSTS SALES OF ITS MAGAZINE/CD
THE LETTER U AND THE NUMERAL 2.
LOSES INCOME, PLANS DEFENSE
WELL, here we go again! As another Christmas rolls around, Negativland
seats itself, pen in hand, to compose our yearly Christmas Newsletter. A
lot has happened since last Christmas in our little family of appropriators.
Last September, feeling we had an intersting story to tell about how
something as simple as an officeful of angry unmusical businesspeople
armed with too much money and some out-of-date copyright notions had
propelled us through a horrible nightmare of lawsuits, lawyers, liars, and
loss, we released a 96-page magazine with CD entitiled 'The Letter U And
The Numeral 2' that documented the entire Negativland/SST/U2/Island
Records episode. The magazine simply presented the lawsuit, court orders,
faxes, public statements and press releases from all the parties,letters,etc.
in chronological order, with no commentary from us, so that the reader
could examine the facts and make up his or her own mind as to what it all
"meant".
Apparantly Greg Ginn, owner of SST Records, thinks otherwise. On
November 10th, 2 months after the release of the magazine, he brought a
5-count lawsuit against us which essentialy seeks to punish us for going
public with the dirty laundry. Yes, we have been sued. Yes, again. And
now it appears that the real nightmare may only be just beginning.
If you're not actually a member of Negativland, or if you've never been
sued yourself - you might find some aspects of the lawsuit to be quite
hilarious:
*We're being sued to stop us from selling a magazine about how we were
sued.
*We're being sued by SST for copyright infringement because we printed
their press releases (!)
*We're being sued by SST's corporate rock lawyer for printing a picture of
SST's "Corporate Rock STILL Sucks" sticker.
*We're being sued for printing their lawyer's letter saying that they want
to sue us.
Funny Stuff. But the grim fact is that Greg's actions are destroying any
opportunity we might have had to get back on our feet financially (we're
trying to self-release all our own stuff now) and could easily prevent us
from releasing any other new work for the next two years! Negativland is
what we do, and this magazine was our first new release back on our own
Seeland Records label. We now know that we could have sold many, many
more than the original limited edition of the magazine; it seems far more
people are interested in our story than we initially expected. This new case
could easily drag on for two years or more, and although we think we'll win
in the end, we can't safely make and sell more copies of 'The Letter U And
The Numeral 2' until the court decides on SST's copyright claims.
Greg Ginn is already keeping our royalties to pay himself back for the U2
costs, and he knows we can't afford to sue him to get him to agree to our
50-50 split offer rather keep back the 100% he so autocratically demands.
This case is going to cost Greg Ginn a lot more money than he has any
reasonable hope of recovering from us in any reasonable time frame (you
can bet his lawyer isn't working for free). SO WHY IS HE SUING US? Well,
it seems that his main reason is...revenge. SST grosses millions of dollars a
year- you can look it up in their credit report printed in our magazine (he's
suing over that too- of course- despite the fact that it's readily available
public information that SST themselves provided), so he can certainly
afford towaste the dozens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars that
it'll cost to take this case to trial. We can't. He seems quite happy to
behave towards us in the same way as Island Records did to him and us,
using his economic might to crush the small and the weak.
A copy of the lawsuit is enclosed so you can see it all for yourself. (It's a
public document, so he can't sue us for that.) You'll notice some other stuff
in there about 'breach of contract';that's all about how they still claim
that
we owe them every dime they had to spend over the Island suit (despite:
gaping holes in their contract; our denials to their claims that we promised
to pay; all the money they made by selling the record; our providing the
GUNS record to replace the U2 record; our flat-out inability to pay; and
SST's own decision to put the record out knowing there might be problems),
and about how they think we owe them master tapes for two new releases
that we cancelled when they tried to stick us with the whole U2 damage
(despite: our attempts to repay the advances; the fact that their lawyer
said they might not even be interested in releasing the records; and the fact
that the tapes aren't even finished yet).
SST is basically punishing us because we've resisted being abused.
If any of this behavior disgusts yo as much as it does us, we would
urge you to:
*SPREAD THE WORD about what SST's doing to us to all your friends, radio
stations, record stores, bands, writers, and the whole alternative musical
community. This mailing is only going out to about 600 people, and we
want EVERYBODY to know what's happening (copy this mailing if you
want, or post it to a computer network).
*Have everybody CONTACT GREG GINN, SST Records proprietor, and let
him know how all of this makes you feel about him and SST, and maybe
even ask him to explain to you just what the hell he thinks he's doing.
(fax 310-430-7286, tel 310-430-7687, 10500 Ilumbolt Street,
Los Alamitos CA, 90720)
*If you've seen the magazine, you know that we stand a very good chance
of getting our U2 single back if we can only change the mind of Casey
Kasem. Now that the magazine has been stopped, we no longer have a
way to tell the world that Casey has been interviewed on radio framing
Island's action against us as censorship, and saying that although he's
personally embarassed by our record, he's for free speech and doesn't
approve of what happened to us; on the other hand, the last word we
have from Island Records is that they'd actually be willing to return the
record to us, except that Casey Kasem has told them privately that if they
do, he'll sue them (see letter and interview, attached). Casey's lawyers
have also threatened us similarily. If you want to help us out, please
CONTACT CASEY KASEM with a good letter or fax and ask him to explain
his contradictory position, but mainly to withdraw his opposition to the
return of our record to us (not to SST). Casey Kasem c/0 Westwood One
Radio Network, 8968 Washington Blvd., Culver City CA. 90230,
fax 310-840-4051, tel 310-840-4000.
*Are there any folks in the LOS ANGELES AREA willing to offer a few
couches and square feet of floor space for us to spend the night on the
days when we'll have to appear in court?
*Any LEGAL FOLKS out there with services to offer , or interesting ideas
on how to proceed?
*ANy WRITERS out there? Please, write about this!
*BE CREATIVE! - think up something helpful (but not illegal...) and do it!
And, as always, feel free to contact us with anything you want to ask us or
say to us: fax 415-420-0469, 1920 Monument Blvd. Concord CA, 94520.
Well, we suppose we should close with a tearful "Happy Holidays," or a
heartfelt "Merry Christmas," but instead, since you may have heard of our
feeling that Christianity is Stupid, and since the "holiday," established by
the church/state, was arbitrarily located in the calendar year to coincide
with the well-established pagan/astrological holidays coinciding with the
winter solstace, while the actual 'birth' date of the extraterrestrially-
operated operative know as Christ was probably sometime in the early fall,
let's just say: "Til Next Year..."
We'll try to keep the world updated as the situation progresses.
Anything you choose to do to help, participate, or contribute will be greatly
apprectiated.
LOVE,
"Negativland" signature here
"Copyright Infringement Is Your Best Entertainment Value" seal here.
ps...SST is also frivolously and maliciously suing the Meat Puppets. For
more info on that, contact their manager, Jamie Kitman, at 914-359-4520,
fax 914-359-4739 (He's being sued too. Are you surprised?)
SPECIAL THANKS to our legal and financial helpers across the
country, and particularly to everyone who came out to see us on
tour in the northeastern half of the country last month.
(end of Negativland's Christmas Newsletter)
I never did get the enclosed copy of the lawsuit nor the Kasem letter and
interview, so obviously I can't reprint them here.
Bombs Away for now
patient Zer0
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Some more (old?) stuff on the Negativland/U2 thing...
This is a long thing, and some of it is garbled, but it is interesting.
I can't believe how far this has gone. It seems money destroys peoples
sense of humor. Neg-land is getting a very big and unjustified shaft just
for making a joke.
--------------------------------CUT HERE-------------------------------------
Hi all...
I pulled this off the net a while ago... it's some more info on the
Negativland/U2 controversy. Please don't let this turn into a flame war over
who was right and who was wrong... just take it for what it's worth.
Later...
Steve
Article: 19820
>From: zerobeat@intacc.uucp (Ferenc Szabo)
Subject: Negativland/FU2 etc...
Date: 29 Dec 92 01:05:35 GMT
Organization: Inter/Access' Matrix BBS
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Toronto, Ontario, Canada__________
First, a reprint of an article that appeared in NOW magazine in late
November '92. (NOW is a local weekly entertainment magazine with a
circulation of over 90,000)...........
STUPID REVENGE
U2 TEAR UP: In light of Island Records' sledgehammering Negativland for
its satirical treatment of U2 and local sound artist John Oswald's bitter
legal experience for copyright infringment on his Plunderphonic projects,
a local entity called STUPIDLAND wants to protest the bullying of
experimental and small independent artists by corporate empires.
Stupidland is inviting anyone to massacre, fold, spindle and mutilate a U2
song and submit it for a compilation tape that will be distributed and sold
for the cost/trade of a blank cassette. This project is strictly not-for-
profit and bootlegging will be strongly encouraged.
Stupidland wants to emphasize that this is NOT a tribute compilation, and
that "recording quality and production values are not as important as the
level of disrespect you show for the songs." Stupidland hopes to have all
submissions by mid-December for a release around Xmas. You can even call
them at xxx-xxxx if you have no access to recording possibilities. They
may even be able to record it for you.
(end of article)
The following week, Stupidland got a call from David akn(rsdn f
the CMRRA -Cnda uia erdcinRgt gnyLmtd.
Stupidland imdaeyptottefloigpesrlae
U OPLTO QAHD Decembr19
Successfully intimidated by threats of legal complctosb MR Cnin
Musical Repouto ihsAec iie,wihrpeet h ulses of U2's mui nCnd) h oot niyko nya SuPdad a
halted plan orlaeF2 n"nitiue ui oplto htwst
showcase mc oot aetcetvl rsigU og swl sIln
and SST reod. U vnbaatybolge ato eailn' eet
Toronto efrac hl uprigt eafr f"rbt"t h et
coast expeietlgop Ngtvadhsbe usoe nat-oyih
issues.
STU PIDLANDsek:
"Maybe there is *someone u hewligt ees hscmiain-bt
under tecrusacs hn tsuws ostmsl pa atr
Because ayo h umsin aebe eihflyma strc
nature, I wol tn itecac fotiiglglpriso rmCRA
to go through withti eodddcmn. tsasae-Imsil
receiving nhssi aeilrpeetn iesyitcrneta
spans raw punk apigmye,rn,idsra,rc,cni neve
and sound olg.
"I offered the public a chance to creatively express their opinions on the
Negativland/Island/SST affair and on U2 in general, and the response has
been tremendous - there's a real public distaste for this band, and it is
interesting how many *former* fans have concluded that the band has totally
sold-out. Island Records seems to have acted independently of U2 in
pursuing action against Negativland, and refused to bend to pressure from
U2 to lay-off. Regardless of how you feel about U2 and their part in this
affair, note how ironic it is that the band itself obviously not longer
owns or controls their own music.
"It is also interesting how (former Black Flag guitarist) Greg Ginn's
'independant' label SST Records (whose slogan has always been "Corporate
Rock Still Sucks") has behaved with corporate-style tactics towards
Negativland by abandoning them when the legal shit hit the fan over the
U2 single SST released, then subsequently threatening to sue Negativland
themselves.
"Maybe I should have named this compilation NOT FOR SALE. Although I
stressed to CMRRA president David Basskin that the FU2 compilation was not
intended to be sold (it was to be made available for the trade of a blank
cassette and bootlegged at will), I was informed that "It wouldn't be
pleasant" for me if this compilation hit the streets. One can only assume
what this exactly means, but it sure sounds messy to me.
"What amazes me is the complete inability to conceive of music that is not
to be a commercial consumer item; music that is "not for sale." Stu
Pidland is not going away until the outmoded rules are updated to
acknowledge more complex issues of art and social commentary. Stu Pidland
is not going away until the musician takes responsibility for and charge
of their own music.
Stupidland is definitely NOT FOR SALE...so don't even ask.
"I feel truly sorry for the pathetic individual who has lost the ability to
appreciate music for its simple spiritual pleasure, for its communicative
power, or for the pure hell of it - the person who equates music with
money or copyright has lost something that you and I at least temporarily
still have (we are of course assuming he *ever* had it). What makes this
all boring and political is that he is often in a position of authority,
and imposes his system of limited understanding on those around him."
To quote CMRRA literature on mechanical licensing, "Copyright is the basis
of the music industry."
Art, satire, social commentary, and music itself are not included
in this bottom-line statement. Neither, deceptively, is *money*,
which we all know to be the real bottom line.
(end of press release)
No, gentle reader, this is not the end! David Basskin read the preceding
press release then subsequently threatened Stu Pidland with a libel suit.
After several menacing phone calls from Basskin and his lawyer, Stu Pidland
decided to put out another press release, of which the contents can (under
Canadian law) be used to negate the libel suit:
CLARIFICATION / RETRACTION to the press
Stu Pidland, aka Gary Johnson, would like to apologize for any
misunderstanding regarding the previous release entitled "FU2 SQUASHED"
sent out last week. I in no way intended to single-out, defame or libel
CMRRA president David Basskin or the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights
Agency Limited.
Basskin, a lawyer and musician himself for some 30 years, *does* seem to
have the interset of musicians and song-writers in mind; and upholds
copyright and licensing as a protective measure for musicians large and
small alike.
My criticism of "those who equate music with money" was a general, not
not specific comment, and merely my own biased opinion.
I appreciated others' rights todisagree, and to express their
differing viewpoints.
Gee, do I ever feel STUPID! If nothing else, I have gained valuable
information on copyright regulations that I urge every independant musician
and song-writer to familiarize themself with before undergoing any
recording project.
Sincerely,
on behalf of Stupidland,
Gary Johnson <signed>
Dec. 10, 1992
(end of press release)
Stu Pidland/Gary/Roscoe sent Negativland the 'FU2 SQUASHED' press release and
this is what they had to say back:
SEELAND RECORDS
Dec. 9, 1992
To: "Roscoe" (Gary Johnson)
Omigod-
I hardly know what to say. Yes. I do too:
1. Fax all that stuff to Paul McGuinness (manager) and to the members of
U2! Make sure they know what's being done in their names! Also send
clippings of any outraged articles that get written about this - they appear
sensitive to press. In Dublin: 353-1-777-276, In NY: 212-765-2372
2. PLEASE, send us a copy of all your submissions - we'd LOVE to hear 'em!
3. Would you make a digital copy of your DAT of us at Toronto and send it
to us at this address?
4. It's shocking how you were treated by the guy - see the attached
Christmas Newsletter for some similar news. I can't encourage you strongly
enough to go out and learn where you stand legally, and not just cave in to
the (obviously scary) intimidation this guy is aiming at you. I don't know
how Canadian law works at all, but it seems to me that the entire
Stupidland project is non commercial (nay, anti-commercial), its activities
are even less illegal than somebody taping Achtung Baby for a friend. Has
corporate control of the culture really reached the point where friends can
be stopped from trading tapes of music they make?
Stay in Touch!!
Gregg
(end of Seeland/Negativland fax)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
>From: Steve Varty <newcastle.ac.uk!Steve.Varty@gatech.edu>
Message-Id: <AA20227.9112200900.tuda@uk.ac.newcastle>
Subject: U2 NEGATIVLAND -- X Magazine interviews Mark Hosler (fwd)
To: u2@last.cac.washington.edu
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 91 9:00:20 GMT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Sender: prism!gt0804b@gatech.edu
Status: RO
I, like others I'm sure, had never heard of Negativeland before the U2 affair,
and didn't know of the trouble until reading about it from the list. If you are
like me this may help; it was recently posted in alt.rocknroll
Forwarded message:
Hi all. About a month ago I promised that once I got an interview with
Mark Hosler and wrote it up I'd post it to the net -- well, here it is.
This is from the pages of X MAGAZINE #9, which is due to hit the stands at
the end of the month. Hope you buy it when you see it (lots of very
cool pix associated with this article, plus interviews with Severed
Heads, Kyle Baker, lotsa other articles, and reams of music reviews).
Email me for back-issue and subscription information.
-- cut here --
Negativland have been playing mix-and-match with the sound of the world
around them for over a decade now, pushing the edge of the sonic envelope
with tape loops and homebrew noisemakers in an age of digital sampling and
sequencing. In 1987 they got their first widespread national attention
when California independent SST Records released their frenetic commentary
on the media and its effect on the world around us, /Escape From Noise/;
two years later the controversy surrounding that album's track
"Christianity Is Stupid" and its alleged connection to a Minnesota
teenager's ax-murder of four members of his family provided material for
their followup composition /Helter Stupid/.
In the years since 1980, Negativland has produced five full-length
albums, four cassette-only releases, an hour-long video, and one, count
it: /one/ single.
Ah, but what a magic single it was.
Lazlo speaks with Negativland's Mark Hosler.
--
THE SINGLE
Mark Hosler doesn't sound angry over the phone. Just shellshocked.
Back in late August, Negativland released their most recent single, coyly
entitled /U2 Negativland/, on SST Records. Some ten days later, by
Hosler's reckoning, there was a restraining order placed on the band and
the label, demanding that they stop "manufacturing, distributing, selling
or otherwise exploiting" the single. 180 pages of legal documents fell
out of the sky and onto the four-man band's heads. And that was just the
beginning.
The offense? Well, when you're a little tiny band that hardly anyone has
ever heard of, and you release a single when a really big record company
is just about to release a new album by one of their really popular
million-selling bands, and on your single you cover -- without permission -
- a song from that million-selling band's last million-selling studio
album, and on top of that your single just /happens/ to have the name of
that really big band in really big letters on the front, bigger than the
name of /your/ band by, oh, maybe a factor of forty -- guaranteed to
confuse your typical minimum-wage record-shop filing clerk -- well then
you tend to attract the unfavorable attentions of that really big record
company. And really big record companies like that aren't really known
for their ability to understand concepts like "parody", "fair comment", or
"cultural criticism". Negativland knows /all about/ this parable now,
because they're the little tiny band, and U2 is the great big band, and
Island Records is the really big record company, and /U2 Negativland/ is
the single, and last September the really big record company came by and
stomped the little tiny band into teeny tiny little bits.
But to Negativland's Mark Hosler, the problem with the single never seemed
that obvious until it was oh-so-unkindly pointed out to the band that
Island Records and U2's music publisher Warner/Chappell objected to it.
"I've since talked to lawyers," Hosler explains, "who've said: 'You're
stupid. You guys were stupid to do this. You should have somehow known
better." I dont know how we could have known better. Even when I sent a
copy to my parents, my Mom opened it up and before she even put it on, she
told me, the first thing she thought was 'oh dear...Mark and his friends
are going to get in trouble over this...'" And even as he says this, he
still sounds a little surprised.
THE ORIGIN
So why is it that Negativland thought they could get away with what seems
to be, on the face of it at least, the kind of release that would give
their record company's legal department the screaming heebie-jeebies?
Maybe it's naivete, maybe it's just that the dangers built so slowly that
the band didn't have the opportunity to be shocked by the incongruousness
of it all.
It all started after a Negativland concert in Portland, Oregon, when a fan
handed the band a tape of outtakes from Casey Kasem's /American Top 40/
radio show. Outtakes that would probably burn your grandmother's ears
off. On the tape, Kasem complains about changes in the format for the
show, bitches about having to follow an uptempo song with a death
dedication for a dog named Snuggles, spews forth with all manner of
obscenity for no particular reason other than that it seems to be what
suits his mouth at the moment, and makes fun of (ta daa) U2. It's not
exactly what you expect to hear from someone who's got as straightlaced a
public image as Kasem -- about the most interesting thing he's ever done
is provide the voice of Shaggy on Hanna-Barbera's /Scooby-Doo/ cartoons.
Naturally, Negativland loved 'em.
Then there were the ads Mark Hosler found in the back of a music magazine,
which offered presequenced MIDI arrangements of top-40 songs for sale.
He ordered a few catalogs, and what should he find but a disk featuring an
arrangement for U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Like
any person fascinated by media and culture, he was curious about what that
might sound like.
"I have the /Joshua Tree/ album," Hosler says. "I like the record . . .
there's a lot of /feel/ to the way they play their rock and roll, and I
figured it would translate into a computer really badly . . . probably
badly in a way that's good, you know -- that we would like, and that would
be funny. Then I was /also/ realizing that if we got [bandmember] David
[Wills], otherwise known as The Weatherman, to do the vocals . . . if I
gave him a version of the lyrics and I wrote it kind of illegibly, I bet
he would really mess them up, and I bet he would butcher them in a really
nice way."
So given those typically unusual ingredients, the band tried to think up
an idea of how to use them. There certainly wasn't enough potential there
for a full-length album, but they *had* to be released somehow, there was
no question about that. The natural answer: a single. "We were worried
about getting in trouble from Casey Kasem," says Hosler, "so we thought
another reason to make a single out of it was if something happens where
we end up maybe having to pull it for some reason, we don't wanna have to
lose a whole album." An ironic thought indeed.
The single that would become /U2 Negativland/ gradually came together.
Wills' vocals, destroying the pretentious myth of Bono's "serious" lyrics.
Don Joyce's recordings of people talking about obscenity and the FCC.
Chris Grigg playing around with the presequenced U2 arrangement, replacing
the drum fills with breaking light bulbs and the guitar riffs with
burbling Pac-Man noises. Tapes of underground radio operators
(ha ha) /looking/ for someone. "One thing we like to try and do in our
work," Hosler explains, "is to make things that resonate at a lot of
levels, so if you listen to them at one level hopefully you'll just think
it's funny, but if you start to dig in, you'll see that it acutally
connects and hooks together in a way that you may not find that often in
music."
And them came the cover. "Believe it or not, this really was one of the
last ideas we had," says Hosler. We were thinking to call it "I Still
Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," but we thought "that's boring, and
it's too many words -- let's just call it U2." The plane on the cover is
a U-2, and that's what we're saying: it's a plane; it's a U-2. And while
we were working on the graphics we . . . uhm . . . decided to make the
"U2" rather /large/."
THE LAWSUIT
The big "U2" was the fatal mistake. If /U2 Negativland/ had almost any
cover but the one that it finally sported, Island probably never would
have noticed it. But with a new U2 album due that fall, and with a big
"U2" taking up most of the cover of Negativland's single . . . well, you
know lawyers.
The lawsuit was over with almost before it even started: Negativland and
SST were up against both the British and American versions of U2's label
and music publisher, who were capable of paying a lawyer -- Madonna's
lawyer, as it turns out -- three or four hundred dollars an hour without
even thinking hard about it. SST and Negativland's company Seeland
MediaMedia were almost invisible when measured by a yardstick of that
size. So what could they do?
"We had a lot of talks about it among the group," Hosler explains, "and we
talked to the lawyer for SST, and a friend of ours who's a lawyer, and it
took me a while to be convinced that there really was nothing that you
could do; they could just hang you up, and all they have to do is hang you
up for a little while and you don't have any more money to spend, and what
can you do?" They ended up doing the only thing that they could afford to
do: they gave in . . . gave up . . . and gave it all away.
THE SETTLEMENT
The settlement that Negativland and SST ended up signing fulfilled
virtually all of the demands of the initial Island/Warner-Chappell
lawsuit. It's heavy-duty stuff, to be sure:
[bullet] All remaining copies of the single -- and all of the master
tapes, and all of the stampers and molds used to press the record, and all
of the cover artwork, and all of the promotional and advertising material,
/all/ of it has to be returned to SST, to be forwarded to Island for
destruction. Already-distributed copies are to be recalled from stores,
radio stations, and clubs. Anyone who distributes, sells, advertises,
promotes, or otherwise exploits the record is subject to fines or jail
time. (This Means You, Mr. College Radio DJ and Ms. Alternative Record-
Shop Owner.)
[bullet] Island and Warner-Chappell get the copyrights to the recordings
on the single. Negativland no longer has /any rights whatsoever/ to the
recordings that they created.
[bullet] Negativland/SST have to pay Island and Warner-Chappell Music
$25,000, plus half of the wholesale costs for all of the copies of /U2
Negativland/ that don't get returned. The total amount due to Island and
Warner-Chappell rings up at over $40,000.
THE FALLOUT
It wasn't a completely unexpected lawsuit, but it came in fast and hard,
and it's taken a psychological toll on the band. Hosler explains it as a
kind of chilling effect: if you look at Negativland's other albums,
there's not a one in the bunch that they couldn't have been sued over by
/someone/. It's almost certainly going to affect the way they make records
in the future. "Suddenly we're saying: was it worth it? "Well boys, we
got to make our little 'art statement', and look what's happened to us."
Should we keep doing what we're doing? Because obviously if we keep doing
what we're doing sooner or later, this is going to happen again. I don't
see how it couldn't."
"What's been really really hard is to take something that you've worked on
-- it took us about a year to get this thing made and out, and we worked
very very hard on it . . . I think it's one of the best pieces that we've
ever done -- and to see two hundred pages of legalese sent to you, all
basically saying "you have no right to say what you want to say, you have
no right to your opinion, and furthermore we're going to make it as if you
never existed. We're going to take this thing and steal it from you and
we're not only going to do that, we're going to /economically/ hurt
you.
"I especially, more than anyone else in the group, was /so/ pissed off. I
was really having an emotional, upset reaction, like "my baby's been
stolen from me, and I'm gonna kill somebody. You can't do this."
Hosler lays at least part of the blame in a pretty obvious place. "I have
no respect for lawyers . . . /any/ lawyers. A lawyer seems to me to be
about the same as an officer in a concentration camp: 'I'm just following
orders! It's not my responsibility -- /they/ told me to throw the switch
and make the gas come on.' The lawyer for Island is in New York but they
needed a representative in Los Angeles and I did talk to /him/ once, and
he /hadn't even heard the music./ He stood behind their position, he
stood behind the case that they were making, and I asked him if he'd ever
heard it . . . he sort of bluffed for a little bit, and I pressed him a
little more, and it turned out that he'd /never even heard it./ I said
well, you know, you should give it a listen. You should know what it is
that you're wiping off the face of the earth."
"I don't even see them as just protecting Island...it's an entire point of
view. It's the entire corporate "don't mess around with our kind of
people, and this type of business, and our control of the media...we
control it, and you stepped outta line here." So the big boot comes down.
THE PROBLEM
Hosler doesn't think this lawsuit is an isolated little incident that
people can afford to ignore. "This whole thing makes me step back a bit
further from just dealing with music," he explains. "In a certain way you
could say, "who cares? It's just music and entertainment," but I see it as
being representative of a mindset that has to do with our economy, our
government, and a whole direction that the world is going in. Something
is going on that's really hard to put you finger on, because it's happening
all around us and it's sort of inivisible, but you know . . . more and
more is owned by less and less people. There are more and more companies
and manufacturers of products, and entertainment, and everything around
us, that are controlled by fewer and fewer people. You end up with these
power structures, the structure of how decisions are made and how they
operate, where people are making decisions that are utterly removed from
the repercussions of their choices. I would love to see every single
charred body from Iraq dropped onto the White House lawn so that you could
say 'Okay George, if you think that you wanna do what you do, that's fine,
but I'd like you to just /deal with what you did/. Look at what you did,
look at what happened to these people.'
"In our case, I'm not able to talk to the person who made the decision to
do this. There's no one you can really yell at, no one you can talk to and
say 'but wait! let's talk about this!' . . . the direct human contact is
not happening. We sent packages along to each member of the group U2.
Of course, the only way to reach U2 is through their manager . . . once
again, there's someone in-between. And of course, you're dealing with a
group that's /so big/ and so busy . . . We didn't really know what to
expect, but I actually did talk to the manager of U2 on the phone, and he
did indicate to me that he was passing along the packages to the group,
that they would each get a copy of the record. We wrote a letter
explaining what has happened to us, and we said, you know, 'what's at
issue here is not whether or not you like what we did, that's not the
point. The point it that this is what's being done on behalf of your
music, by your company, which you probably don't even realize. And it's
not just that we're changing the cover or recalling all the records . . .
it's far beyond that. It's to the point where it's . . . you know, it's
like putting the band into a /coma/. It's gonna just about kill us. And
we just wanted to let you know that /this is happening,/ and if you choose
to, you can do something about it.'
"So far, there's been nothing."
THE FUTURE
Negativland isn't dead yet. There's still some question about how the
$63,000 in total costs for the case -- more than Negativland has made as a
band since they started in 1979 -- will be split between the band and SST,
but there's a new single due out soon ("Guns") and a live album will be
released in early '92. They're trying to arrange a trans-Atlantic
collaboration with The Kalihari Surfers, a South African band that shares
Negativland's obsession with the media and how it shapes peoples' lives.
More tapes derived from bandmember Don Joyce's radio show /Over The Edge/
(KPFA, Berkeley) are planned. Their 1989 video, NO OTHER POSSIBILITY, has
finally been released on Seeland. Hosler's been spending his free time
putting together covers for the CD release of their self-titled first
record -- as with the original 1979 vinyl album, Mark's making the cover
for every single CD in the initial thousand-copy pressing by hand. The
show goes on. But Mark and the rest of the band will feel like they have
to be a little more careful now. Every time they put together another
record, the possibility of geting sued for it will be nagging at the back
of their minds, and there's no guarantee that they'll ever again be able
to run as loose and wild as they've done on masterpieces like /U2
Negativland/. That's a pretty big price for /us/, the listeners, to have
to pay just so Island and U2 can have their peace of mind when they go to
sleep at night.
--
All the Negativland releases mentioned in this interview and more -- except,
of course, for /U2 Negativland/, are available from:
Negativmailorderland
109 Minna #391
San Francisco, CA 94105
--
Lazlo (lazlo@triton.unm.edu)
End forwarded message:
I didn't want to give my view but I can't keep quiet. I haven't heard the
record, but I think this blokes attitude to music stinks. If you can't do
anything original then don't do it at all; and in this statement I call cover
versions original since it is a new interpretation of a song. Stringing
together several tapes of somebody elses music is just a rip off and I think
they got what they deserved; plus the cover was made to fool people into
thinking it was a U2 record which I think is immoral. (Just MHO) I'm going to
put my flame proof pants on now :-)
Steve.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= From: | The Alarm 1981- =
= Steve Varty (steve.varty@uk.ac.newcastle) | 1991 R.I.P. =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
________________________________________________________________________
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