[Rumori] "Grey Tuesday" Civil Disobedience Planned February 24th Against Copyright Cartel

[Carrie McLaren]

hey all, if you want to participate but don't 
have the Grey Album yet you can download it from:
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

carrie

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"Grey Tuesday" Civil Disobedience Planned 
February 24th Against Copyright Cartel
http://www.downhillbattle.org/pressreleases/greytuesday_21904.html

DOWNHILL BATTLE (February 18, 2004) -- A 
coalition of websites will join in an online 
protest to offer free downloads of a critically 
acclaimed album that is being censored by a 
lawsuit threat from EMI Records.  The action is 
an act of civil disobedience against a copyright 
regime that routinely suppresses musical 
innovation. The Grey Album , which remixes 
Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album 
, has been hailed as a innovative hip-hop 
triumph, but EMI sent cease-and-desist letters to 
any record store that stocked it.  This Tuesday 
("Grey Tuesday") the coalition of sites will 
offer free downloads of the Grey Album, and turn 
their pages grey, to take a stand against a 
copyright regime that serves neither musicians 
nor the public interest.

Any site can get information on how to join the action at greytuesday.org .

"Grey Tuesday will be the first protest of its 
kind," said Downhill Battle co-founder Holmes 
Wilson, "The major record labels have turned 
copyright law into a weapon, but participants in 
this action will be ignoring EMI's threats and 
insisting on the public's right to hear 
innovative new music."

"EMI isn't looking for compensation, they're 
trying to ban a work of art," said Downhill 
Battle's Rebecca Laurie.  "The record industry 
has become a huge drag on creativity and it's 
only getting worse--it's time to take a stand."

The Grey Album has been widely shared on 
filesharing networks such as Kazaa and Soulseek, 
and has garnered critical acclaim in Rolling 
Stone (which called it "the ultimate remix 
record" and "an ingenious hip-hop record that 
sounds oddly ahead of its time"), the New Yorker, 
the Boston Globe (which called it the "most 
creatively captivating" album of the year), and 
other major news outlets.

"It's clear that this work devalues neither of 
the originals.  There is no legitimate artistic 
or economic reason to ban this recordâ¤"this is 
just arbitrary exertion of control," said 
Nicholas Reville, Downhill Battle co-founder. 
"The framers of the constitution created 
copyright to promote innovation and creativity. 
A handful of corporations have radically 
perverted that purpose for their own narrow self 
interest, and now the public is fighting back."

The reporters and news outlets that reviewed the 
Grey Album have obtained it illegally from 
filesharing networks.  "If music reviewers have 
to break the law to hear new, innovative music, 
then something has gone wrong with the law," said 
Laurie.

"Remixes and pastiche are a defining aesthetic of 
our era.  How will artists continue to work if 
corporations can outlaw what they do?" said 
Reville.  "Artists, writers, and musicians have 
always borrowed and built upon each other's 
workâ¤" now they have to answer to corporate 
legal teams."

College and noncommercial radio stations will 
also be participating in Tuesday's action by 
playing the Grey Album in its entirety (possibly 
along with the Jay-Z and Beatles sources).
-- 
Carrie McLaren
Editor, Stay Free!
www.stayfreemagazine.org
www.illegal-art.org
718.398.9324