SHADES OF GREY FOR DJ DANGERMOUSE

The BBC reports that EMI, the record label responsible for the Beatles’ music, has successfully threatened legal action against the DJ, DJ Dangermouse, who has mixed together the music from the Beatles’ White Album with the words of rapper Jay-Z, taken from his Black Album. In response to EMI’s assertion of its copyright, Mr Dangermouse has agreed not to produce, sell or distribute any more copies of the work. However, he is encouraging his fans to do what he can’t and a spokesman has said that he is “just happy for people to burn it, bootleg it and post it on the internet”. This is possible because a number of promotional copies were realsed and are now circulating in the hip-hop community. Their scarcity makes them all the more sought after.

The IPKat is mildly amused by the ironic fact that EMI’s assertion of its copyright has made the potentially infringing materials into valuable commodities. Moreover, there’s not a lot EMI can do to stop the private reproduction of the work, short of tracking down and bringing action against the actual copiers. Additionally, there’s nothing that EMI can do against DJ Dangermouse because there’s no offence of incitement to infringe copyright.

Dangermouse here
Dangerous mice here
Have a grey day here
Everything’s all white here, here and here