What ridiculousness is this – the Associated Press are going after Shephard Fairey for compensation and/or credit for the original image used for the famous Obama ‘Hope’ poster?

A poster that bears only some relation to the fairly generic original (look at the eyes or the tie for example), did not profit from – all profits went to the campaign – and I’ve heard even Manny Garcia, the AP staffer/freelancer who took the picture who is no longer with AP didn’t even recognise that it was his photo used on the poster.

I mean I can’t imagine the late great Alberto Korda (or worse: a corporation he worked for) going after those who used the Che image?

Ultimately although bootlegged as with the Obama poster, it benefited the cause. And Shephard Fairey redrew the image, cropped it and turned it into that poster, he didn’t hide where he got it from, and didn’t profit from it at all.

Love to know what Manny Garcia thinks – that such a historically important cultural object and poster gets the kind of litigation that Mr Korda would’ve balked at (well he couldn’t actually sue until recently because Cuba wasn’t a Berne Convention signatory, but he’s gone on record saying “I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world” and only being against the commercial use of the image in such un-Che things as Smirnoff vodka).

Hmm, another case of a large media conglomerate not getting with the digital age, or even the sort of nearly 50 year old radical ethos that meant the Che image (and interestingly and wonderfully Korda’s legacy) persisted around the world for decades – too early to say whether this poster has made that sort of cultural leap, doubtful but certainly the biggest icon of Obama’s campaign and rule so far.

Apparently a copy is now in The Smithsonian…shame the Associated Press do not seem to get the spirit, fair use or radical nature of the work. Fools…I think their time has come, what with people twittering and taking pictures of live events and news – we first saw this majorly in 2005 with the bombs in London, yes people had cameras at 9/11 but it was the first time I saw mobile phone pics (one taken by someone I know – Alex, aka JetSetAlex, a previous mashup person) used on front pages of newspapers.

Times they are a’ changin, The Disassociated Press of Guerilla Media is coming.

I think Che would have liked the irony in that….

This article in Technology Review includes a interview with me – it sprang out of the anti-Girl Talk post I made on Radio Clash where I posted examples that were far better that don’t get Pitchfork’s tongue up their arse (bitter? me? why yes when it’s so meh!).

It also has interviews with several other people that have been featured or played on Radio Clash – the ever-lovely DJ Earworm (as interviewed on the podcast in 2005, and regularly played on the show and I made the approved video for the Reckoner Lockdown mash mentioned in the piece) and Lenlow who’s mashes I’ve played many times on the show.

The interview – well I had a great 1-2 hour chat with Larry Hardesty, lovely journalist who had done his homework (so many journos don’t – it’s why I wanted to make sure he had all the info – a lot of the stuff in the article is stuff we talked about, like the acapella sources but I didn’t want to go into proper print saying something like ‘Yeah Tim told me how to get acapellas from video games’ – err nope. I may be punker than Girl Talk – not hard – but I’m not stupid .

And nice to see he agrees with me about Stairway to Bootleg Heaven – it is the best mashup, ever as I told him

Just got an email from Mixwit, a service to make mixtapes of tracks that are already online via Seeqpod and other services, and share them (not the tracks, just streamed via Flash) I’ve used and hope to use in future – they’re closing at the end of the year, for unspecified reasons:

“I won’t go into the details of our situation but state simply that we boldlyre marched into in a position best described as “between a rock and a hard place.”

Which to anyone used to reading between the lines and seeing little music industry cockroaches sunning themselves there – can mean one thing: RIAA or some other body has gotten to them.

As Techcrunch points out, when will these industries ‘get it’? Mixwit was no Napster – you couldn’t download the tracks, it harked back to a more innocent time with cassette tapes made for friends, yes, but unlike those tapes (for which the laughable campaign and tape skull and crossbones logo that PirateBay is now using was created for – ‘Taping is Killing Music – and it’s a CRIME!’) you couldn’t take the tracks away, only maybe embed the little Flash device somewhere.

The tracks weren’t uploaded to their servers, no-one got any tracks they shouldn’t have, and users got to interact with music in a new(ish) way…so of course it got canned – it’s like the industry doesn’t want people to share and learn about new music – I’ve bought many albums and gone to live gigs off something originally heard on some crappy D90; ditto P2P and torrents; and sites like Hype Machine, or blip.fm who similarly has had a fatwa on their service.

So news at 11: Record Industry STILL doesn’t get it, music sharing (even just hearing the track) IS not a crime (it’s why Myspace is so big, and Youtube) and actually helps them in the long run, because people want to hear music that others recommend. Not limited by catalog or label or genre or the poor scrappy handouts from artists and labels, no the tracks they love. Love and will buy if they get reminded or exposed to them, rather than what dross some corporate marketing board is pushing this week.

And if they were wise enough to support and harness that, like Pandora (closed to the UK for many years) they’d have a massive database of what tracks people like, and what maybe they should release…but no, Father Knows Best apparently.

See you all down at the Woolworths Bargain Bin then….oh.

Original CC image by Lord Jim, design by Tim Baker Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK

Whew what HASN’T happened since the last show? New US President -and he’s black. New back pains and colds for Tim – and he’s ill. Yes we can, and No to H8, but not during happy hour or eating your Credit Crunch cereal (you know the one that turns the milk red). A new hope, Episode III, ‘I have a good feeling about this’, but first where’s my money?

This is a dance we do down Johannesburg way (93Mb, 111mins)

Tracklist:

• Miriam Makeba – Pata Pata
• Fosforo – Cumbia De Obama
• San Francisco Mime Troupe – Because you’re Stupid
• Incredible Bongo Band – Bongo 73
• Nan Vasconcelos – Brasil (Luciano Re-Edit)
• Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Felix Remix)
• Fifth Dimension – Let The Sunshine (Solly Bmore Edit)
• Kanye West – Love Lockdown (Solly Remix)
• AC Slater – Poison
• ZZT – Lower State Of Consciousness (Justice remix)
• AC Slater – Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix)
• DJ Donna Summer – Hoovermore
• Faex – What Poetry
• Ground Shelter (fear)
• The Chambers Brothers – Funky
• Mercury Rev – Senses On Fire (Fujiya & Miyagi Remix)
• Chase & Status – Against All Odds (Ft Kano)
• Chase & Status – Take Me Away
• London Elektricity – This Dark Matter
• Chase & Status – Is It Worth It
• London Elektricity – Outnumbered
• Eric B. and Rakim – Don’t Sweat The Technique
• The Moog Synthesizer with The Camarata Contemporary Chamber Orchestra – Sports et Divertissements – Le Flirt
• Tom Wilson – Lesbian_Seagull
• Gnarls Barkley – Who’s Gonna Save My Soul (Demo Version)
• Rah Band – Is anybody there
• Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs (Rough & Outtakes)

This is a little dedication going out to those who voted for Prop 8, 2 or 102 in various states. Or those moaning that they don’t like Obama (don’t get me wrong, I do…I wish he was better in a few places but certainly much better than Grumpy McSame) or didn’t vote at all, and are now kvetching about it being the same old same old.

And especially those who think that civil rights are all separate, they won’t fight for yours cos of self-interest or religion and don’t believe that unity and a common front and acceptance of others than them is worth fighting for.

Because You’re Stupid (by the San Francisco Mime Troupe)