Breathe!
The thunderclouds lifted and i got away.
And straight into 3 solid weeks of madness.
Week one, in Washington DC at the SilverDocs/AFI conference, where I sat on a panel with the ABC/Disney clearance officers (!) to discuss copyright in documentary. Great panel, well attended, and I got to show some Basement Tapes clips in a swanky theatre. While in Washington, I interviewed Mary Beth Peters, the registrar of copyrights for the United States, who had never heard a mashup. We played her some Girl Talk, which prompted her to advise him to get legal advice. Also, Bruce Lehman, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration and author of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Saw some great flics, too.
Next stop: Los Angeles. Met with a wonderful family, the Farbmans. They were the first recipients of the Boy Scouts Respect Copyrights Activity Patch. Good people - managed to get some boogey boarding. Also interview with Cory Doctorow (www.boingboing.net) at Disneyland.
On to San Fransisco, missed some interviews due to delayed flight, rented car and drove to Nevada City, California, home of revolutionary comic book genius Dan O'Neill. Dan was sued by Disney in the 70s for his contribution to the Air Pirates, a collective who drew Mickey Mouse in all kinds of illegal and pornographic situations. Fantastic guy.
Then back to Montreal to meet Gregg (Girl Talk) for his performance at the Jazz Festival - and we had a surpise waiting. After Gregg's performance, he directed the crowd outside, where we had a generator waiting with a wireless receiver. Gregg pumped his laptop to the crazy kart and a 10 minute guerilla party followed. MADNESS!
All in all, I'm exhausted. Preparing for our trip to Brazil August 1st and our meeting with Gilberto Gil, minister of culture.
Girl Talk video below...enjoy! I'll post some pics soon
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All video, where applicable, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
Is what I'm doing illegal?
Just watched the Lawrence Lessig Free Culture Movement video, and have been following some of the posts here. Not sure if this is exactly the best place to ask this, but I figure there are some readers here that might be able to help me. I have a question...
I just started to "cyber busk" on my website, www.thebusking.com, and I'm wondering if I'm doing anything illegal. I provide my music (almost all covers for now) for free. However, I have a tip jar where someone can donate via a credit card. I'm also generating revenue through a few google ads I placed on the site. I only started it about a week ago, and I'm under the radar with profits, but I'm just wondering if anyone out there knows if what I'm doing is illegal. I'm not selling the music, and it's not entirely certain for which song someone might "tip" for. Could this be a new way for artists to make a profit from the work, without actually "selling" their work?
You can see what I'm doing here: http://thebusking.com
Any suggestions from people reading this would be much appreciated.
-The Bus King
Hi Bus King
Your problem is the "covers" - they are songs written and owned by somebody else who may or may not want credit, money, whatever. Why don't you start to 1. write your own material OR 2. find a songwriter to work with - there are MILLIONS who would love to have their work done, or 3. contact the musicians whose work you like to cover - many times if there is not a huge label in between its as easy as asking. Its respectful...
unfortunately illegal
Yes, technically you need to pay the publishing rights for the songs :( Its hard not to be a pirate these days..