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→Criticism: Remixing
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.
===Remixing===
In a posting on nin.com on 11/20/2007, Reznor explained that the launch of [[remix.nin.com]] that was supposed to accompany the release of ''[[Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D]]'' and all ''[[Year Zero]]'' [[multitracks]] had been delayed due to a legal hitch caused by Universal:
My former record company and current owner of all these master files, Universal, is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media
titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites do not have what is referred to as "safe
harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and
video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to
the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for. Their premise
is that if any fan decides to remix one of my masters with material Universal doesn't own - a "mash-up", a sample, whatever - and
upload it to the site, there is no safe harbor under the DMCA (according to Universal) and they will be doing exactly what MySpace
and YouTube are doing. This behavior may get hauled out in court and impact their lawsuit. Because of this they no longer will host
our remix site, and are insisting that Nine Inch Nails host it. In exchange for this they will continue to let me upload my
Universal masters and make them available to fans, BUT shift the liability of hosting them to me. Part of the arrangement is having
user licenses that the fans sign (not unlike those on MySpace or You Tube) saying they will not use unauthorized materials. If they
WERE to do such a thing, everybody sues everybody and the world abruptly ends.
While I am profoundly perturbed with this stance as content owners continue to stifle all innovation in the face of the digital
revolution, it is consistent with what they have done in the past. So... we are challenged at the last second to find a way of
bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other’s feet. We
have a cool and innovative site ready to launch but we're currently scratching our heads as to how to proceed.
More to come….
The full post can be read [http://stereogum.com/archives/universal-delays-remixnincom-launch-reznor-tries-t_007248.html#more here]
==External Links==