Stuff that Doesn’t Exist (and Stuff that Does)

First we learn that 49% of the Republicans polled think ACORN stole the election for Obama and we also learn this great fact:

…most Americans don’t have an opinion about [Bowles/Simpson]. 23% support it, 16% oppose it, and 60% say they don’t have a take one way or the other.

The 39% of Americans with an opinion about Bowles/Simpson is only slightly higher than the 25% with one about Panetta/Burns, a mythical Clinton Chief of Staff/former western Republican Senator combo…

So both the long-defunct ACORN and the (as yet)non-existent Panetta/Burns plan weigh heavily on the low-information-voter mind.

Meanwhile, in the department of good cheer, BoingBoing points me to a band called Do Not Foresake Me Oh My Darling that has made a shot-for-shot remake of the classic intro to the The Prisoner.

I’m not in love with the music (the Leonard Cohen cover on their page is not a crime, but I never want to hear it again), but I love the concept of “Episode 1 – Arrival”.

I’d also like to hear a copyright scholar tell me if this is a legitimate derivative work, or a potential copyright violation. It’s clearly too much a labor of love to be a parody.

This entry was posted in 2012 Election, Kultcha, Law: Copyright and DMCA. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Stuff that Doesn’t Exist (and Stuff that Does)

  1. Anonymous says:

    Copyright confers control over derivative works, so the fact that it’s a derivative work is irrelevant. Assuming the opening scene of the prisoner is not in the public domain, the issue here is whether Do Not Forsake is making a fair use. In deciding whether a use is a fair use we evaluate four factors: the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion taken; and the effect of the use upon the potential market.

    Rather than offering an opinion on whether the work falls under fair use (there are as always arguments on both sides), I will simply express a common-sense desire that I assume most people watching the video will share. I hope whoever owns the rights to The Prisoner takes this video as a sincere compliment from an obviously committed fan, and allows it to remain up on YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

  2. Vic says:

    Blah, blah, blah… In ANY random group of people there is a large supply of the uninformed and even ignorant. This is HARDLY news, or even surprising. Though it IS somewhat disingenuous to pretend that being Republican has anything to do with it. I suspect you’d get similar results with ANY group of people – and there is an entire comedy genre formed around just that principle.

    (I presume you neither will remember nor admit to remembering the various polls done a year or so ago (under equally ridiculous motives) that “proved” that Democrats were stupid because they didn’t know who the veep was and things like that. Don’t worry about admitting knowledge, they were stupid polls for the same reason.)

    But this story just shows ONCE AGAIN what the real problem is: Our electoral process appears inherently untrustworthy enough that conspiracy theories, true or untrue, are easily generated. We simply DON’T have elections that produce trustworthy numbers that are not susceptible to seemingly reasonable accusations of vote fraud. The evidence for this problem is overwhelming, and yet a whole lot of people work diligently to keep it the same. The story here is perception, not ignorance.

  3. Tom Parmenter says:

    Many years ago, as a teenager, my son Dan came up with ‘tribute/parody/ripoff’. This is clearly only the first.

Comments are closed.