“There is no doubt that piracy is an important problem — it’s just not the only problem. Our leaders have lost this sense of balance. They have been seduced by a vision of culture that measures beauty in ticket sales. They are apparently untroubled by a world where cultivating the past requires the permission of the past. They can’t imagine that freedom could produce anything worthwhile at all.
The danger remains invisible to most, hidden by the zeal of a war on piracy. And that is how the public domain may die a quiet death, extinguished by self-righteous extremism, long before many even recognize it is gone.”
(via publicdomainthing)
Source: The New York Times
Nice piece on how older forms of media (distribution) are being kept alive.
Hardware store giant Lowe’s has yanked ads from the series after the Florida Family Association encouraged members to email the program’s advertisers.
Source: soulhunting
It’s not fair,” Mr. Muir said hurling a white ribbon. “The board is an embarrassment to our school and a disservice to the student population.
Syl Johnson Sues Kanye West & Jay-Z for Sampling His Vocals on “The Joy”
Photo by www.dripmagazine.com
Back in August, we wrotethat Numero Group had accused Kanye West and Jay-Z’s label of doing soul crooner Syl Johnson dirty by sampling his vocals without clearing it with the sampling house. Now Johnson has officially filed a lawsuit against West and Z claiming unspecified damages for copyright infringement, unfair competition and fraud.The song in question is “The Joy,” the last track from Kanye and Jay-Z’s collaborative album Watch The Throne, which contains Syl Johnson’s vocals from “Different Strokes.” The legal battle has been going on for about a year, ever since “The Joy” was released as part of Kanye’s Good Friday series. Last fall Syl Johnson even said he “heard that shit in Walgreens the other day.” Numero spoke with Def Jam’s sampling clearing house and came to a verbal agreement, but no documents were signed.Watch The Throne came out earlier this year, and Numero Group was surprised to hear Syl’s voice on it, without a legal agreement.
Then, in a blog post (which appears to have since been taken down, but we quoted here onDR!P Magazine’s Blog) Numero Group wrote that Johnson called them up to ask why Numero was credited in the liner notes, not Johnson. “Wondering why we weren’t consulted on this new use, and baffled why we appear in the credits, for which we never asked, we contacted the sample clearance house. Even they cannot get a response from their own clients. Island Def Jam seems to think that Syl doesn’t have any fight left in him. We’re betting otherwise.”
“Different Strokes” has been sampled by plenty of rappers, as Johnson himself points out in this video of him performing in Brisbane. Listen to the song below (click link), and you might hear why.
According to Irum Abbassi, she was unlawfully removed from a Southwest Airlines flight going from San Diego to San Jose last March. She was on the plane talking on her phone, and when the plane was ready for take off, she said “I’ve got to go.” You know, because you can’t be on the phone during a flight.
There is no honour in this…


