[Rumori] [irdial-list-admin@irdial.com: [Irdial-list] Irdial Wilco and WEA Settle Spy Radio Sample Lawsuit]

[niall munnelly]

from the irdial list.  sticking it to the man aside, i'm not entirely
comfortable with this news.




Irdial Wilco and WEA Settle Spy Radio Sample Lawsuit

In a classic David and Goliath confrontation, Irdial-Discs, experimental
independent music label from the UK, brought a High Court action against WEA
International over their CD release "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by the group 
Wilco,
which flagrantly infringes Irdial"s copyright.

"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" bears a track entitled "Poor Places", which contains 
one
minute and thirty seconds of sound from "Phonetic Alphabet Nato" lifted 
directly
from disc one of the quadruple CD "The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave
Numbers Stations". The Conet Project track features a female voice repeating
over and over the phrase, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", which Wilco took for the 
title
of their critically acclaimed CD.

WEA International did not ask for permission to include this sound from our
release in the CD "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", which has sold close to one million
infringing copies.

The Conet Project is a historic collection of espionage "Numbers Stations".
These Numbers Stations are found on the shortwave radio bands, and are used 
by
the CIA, MI5, MOSSAD and the rest of the world"s espionage agencies to
communicate to their agents in the field.

The Conet Project is the first ever CD release to systematically collect
recordings of all known Numbers Stations world-wide for the purpose of the
historic preservation of this largely unknown area of espionage tradecraft.
Before its release, there were no recordings of Numbers Stations in The 
Library
of Congress or The British Library, both of which now have a comprehensive 
set
of examples of this phenomenon thanks to The Conet Project.

Numbers stations have been on the air for at least 30 years, and they can 
still
be heard today, all over the world, without any special equipment other than 
an
ordinary short wave radio. They use a simple yet unbreakable system of
encryption, known as a "One Time Pad", to scramble the messages sent out to
spies at work in foreign countries.

The bizarre sound of these stations is deeply fascinating to shortwave
enthusiasts, experimental sound artists and musicians. Each station has its 
own
peculiarities and methods of operation, making finding and cataloguing them a
rewarding hobby for the short wave enthusiasts who monitor them, and 
listening
to them an inspiration to lovers of experimental music and "found art". This 
is
why The Conet Project has been sampled and incorporated into dozens of
compositions and works of art since its initial release.

By taking this sound from our release, tacking it onto the end of the track
"Poor Places", and failing to obtain permission to release their CD with our
sound on it, WEA International, an RIAA record label, infringed our 
copyright.
It is only after the case was brought to the High Court of Justice in London
that they have finally relented and have been pressured to, in their own 
words,
"reluctantly agree" to pay Irdial-Discs a royalty in perpetuity on a 
worldwide
basis.

000


Links:
http://irdial.com/conet.htm
http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000055XXU/202-5006876-2429419


Contact:
Akin Fernandez, Irdial-Discs Irdial at irdial.com

Irdial-Discs is distributed in the USA by Forced Exposure:
Arthur Nalis, arthur at forcedexposure.com

-- 
yours,
niall.
.. .  .   .    .     .       .           .             .                 .
aleph null.                             a simple insinuation around silence.
http://syncretism.net