Negativland at 28ish
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://tinyurl.com/2fg89a
APRIL 25, 2007:
Negativland at 28ish
Business as usual
By Robbie Mackey
Creative Commons is a post-2.0 nonprofit that offers progressive
copyright options to artists who aren't concerned with battening down
the hatches on their work. According to its website, "Creative Commons
provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists and educators
easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to
carry." With CC copyrights, they say in large bold letters, you can
change "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." Big diff, for
sure. But is that enough? How about "Almost No Rights Reserved"? What
about "Rights. Schmights. Just Give Me Credit"?
In 2003, Negativland addressed these concerns when they engineered a
completely unrestrictive license for Creative Commons -- a new option
that, since being unveiled, has become the site's most popular. Electing
the Negaright basically allows anyone to use, re-use or sample your
work, for any purpose. Even to make money.
It's only fitting that a group who famously came under fire in the '80s
for big-time copyright infringement would spearhead one of the most
liberating copyright developments ever. After all, head Negativ Mark
Hosler and company have put in 28 years of poking fun at sacred stuff,
from their expletive-laden Casey Casem outtakes and kazoo-laced
U2-ripping that first brought their name into homes to 2005's No
Business and its multimedia rail against copyright laws in the digital
age, peer-to-peer paranoia and blind patriotism. Business as usual for
Negativland -- a band of sonic collage artists, aural satirists and
social critics who have made a living out of picking up the cross and
repeating a mantra by way of their illegal-pastiche creative process: An
artist should be able to use another artists' work in order to make a
statement, especially when that statement is: An artist should be able
to use another artists' work in order to make a statement, especially....
Dizzy? It's cyclical logic, sure, but you see where they're going.
Illegally download Negativland's No Business today for more: The band
would appreciate it.
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=106325
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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"Don't just question authority,
Don't forget to question me."
-- Jello Biafra