The New Paltz Oracle
Volume 75 Issue 14
Thursday, February 26, 2004
By Jessika Pasko, Managing Editor
Tuesday marked an unusual observance, "Grey Tuesday," a date that you wouldn't find on any calendar or Hallmark greeting card. The day was sponsored by music activist group, Downhill Battle, as a way of protesting corporate control of the music industry.
Last year, the Recording Industry Association of America began subpoenaing those who illegally downloaded music from Web sites such as Napster and Kazaa. Now, in another example of the corporate control of music, record label EMI has attempted to block access to an innovative new album. The album has received rave reviews from such publications as Rolling Stone magazine and The Boston Globe.
What is this new album? A little something called The Grey Album. Created by British DJ Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Brian Burton, the album is a composite remix of rapper Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album. Prior to Danger Mouse's creation, Roc-a-fella, Jay-Z's label had released an acapella version of the album meant to encourage such remixes.
EMI, which claims rights to the White Album, on the other hand was far from supportive. So far from supportive in fact, that the company has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores and Web sites stop making the album available. They even told stores they had to destroy the existing copies of the album.
Thomas Doran, a junior business major at SUNY New Paltz said, " Basically, they [EMI] have said 'hey, people can't hear this piece of work . . . no, cease and desist now. When this government created the copyright, its purpose was to 'promote the progress of science and the useful arts.'"
Unfortunately, without a clearly defined right to sample, the five major record labels can continue to use copyright in a " reactionary and narrowly self-interested manner that limits and erodes creativity," according to greytuesday.org, a site in protest of EMI's efforts.
Doran is currently working with Downhill Battle to raise awareness on this campus and is very passionate about the issues involved.
" What the record companies are doing now, they're totally distorting that purpose and using it to their advantage," said Doran.
This past Tuesday was considered "Grey Tuesday," because Downhill Battle arranged a coordinated day of civil disobedience in which a great number of Web sites posted the album for visitors to download for 24 hours. This action was taken in protest of EMI's attempts at censorship. Music fans were also encouraged to make their own homepages all grey for the day, and to call up local radio stations and request the album.
"There's the normal scenario when you download music 'illegally,' you're stealing from a corporation, something that they have no right to claim possession of in the first place," said Doran. " The thing with DJ Danger Mouse, what he did was create this work of art, but critics had to download it illegally in order to review it and gave it rave reviews. Right there you know something is wrong."
Doran is assistant music director at the campus radio station as well as being the founder of the newest campus publication, the soon-to-be-released 'Zine.
The protest apparently went well. The organization's Web site said that approximately 170 different sites hosted the album, even ones that had received cease and desist letters from EMI itself. Over 100,000 copies are estimated to have been downloaded yesterday.
The Grey Tuesday project was the first protest of its kind, garnering the attention of such media giants as MTV and The New York Times. The organizations involved hope that it signals a refusal to let major labels control what can be created and heard.
"We cannot allow these corporations to continue censoring art; we need common sense reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal and practical for artists," according to greytuesday.org.