back to article Danger Mouse seems to want fans to pirate his blocked release

A legal dispute has led one of pop music's most exciting artists to take a novel approach to the release of his latest work: the album is a blank recordable CD on to which buyers can record illegally-downloaded versions of the album. Fans of Danger Mouse can buy a luxurious package of a poster and a book of photographs by cult …

COMMENTS

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  1. Niall

    Penfold Shush!

    There is only one Danger Mouse.

  2. Elmer Phud
    Happy

    Good grief

    "Cor blimey, DM." - sorry, had a Penfold moment there.

  3. Dennis
    Paris Hilton

    id anyone else read this thinking

    It was about a certain mouse superhero.

    So EMI are killing music and innovation.

    Well who would have thought it?

    I would love a danger mouse Icon but I guess it could be misinterpreted as some musician that I have never heard of.

    So make do with a Paris although I hate to scrap the bottom of the barrel

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Oh crumbs!

    Ooh carrots!

    I'm disappointed, thought this was going to be about a new film featuring the world's smallest super-agent and his fearful assistant Penfold.

  5. Michael Habel
    Coat

    So which remaning Beatle...

    Gets to play Barron Greenback??

    My Monies on Paul....

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    1min 41 seconds

    thats all

  7. Peter Foulkes
    Stop

    An old cynic says...

    This looks like a very good marketing exercise.

    Who is printing and providing the distribution of the album with no music? EMI perhaps?

    It seems a great deal of publicity has been created by an artist and record company who are well aware of the availability of free downloads and have the opportunity here to actually recoup some money by falling back on the old style physical product.

    It is like the Emperor's new clothes and I would imagine there will be a great deal of self congratulating if they manage to pull it off.

    The legal issues regarding the release are likely to be rights related, i.e. someone else wants paying for the use of their music. What a genius way of avoiding the payments. Sorry guv, we never sold it to the kids, look we even sent out a 1000 press releases telling the world we weren't selling it.

  8. Mark C

    @Oh Crumbs

    Was DM really smaller than Inch High Private Eye?

    Back on topic.... what are EMI playing at?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Mash up?

    Since when is a "mash-up" (in my day we called it copying, sampling, or simply theft!) of someone else's creative work inovative and exciting??

  10. Martin Lyne

    Never heard of him

    But, still, it has to be said that I never, ever saw the extended 2 Millenium copyright limits being a factor in stifling creativity. And a music label not emracing change?! THIS IS UNHEARD OF!

  11. Random Noise

    Re: An Old Cynic says

    I have to agree with Columbo. Oh sorry 'Foulkes'.

    These marketeers are sneaky , tricksy folks.

    As Bill Hicks said 'If you're in marketing or advertising; kill yourself. No really'

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    what are EMI playing at?

    marketing Phenomnom...>?

  13. David

    @AC 10:57

    Look for an album by Dean Gray, called "American Edit", which contains many mashed up tracks and is, IMHO much better than American Idiot that it was based on. Oh, and by the way, sampling other peoples music to use on a track of your own isn't theft, even if you don't get the right holders permission, as long as the clip that's sampled is under a certain length (3 seconds IIRC)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Sod the music

    I'm off to see if I can find the original DM cartoon series on some Bittorrent site.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Grey album

    I rate Danger Mouse as a producer. However i think the Grey album wasn't all that good, mostly because in my opinion Jay Z is the most overrated rapper ever.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "one of pop music's most exciting artists"

    Danger Mouse's output is about as exciting as a Sunday afternoon watching the repeats of Eastenders. There is nothing innovative about "mash ups" - Steinski and the Mass Media were doing the same thing back in the mid 1980's using the same kind of technology. As for claims that three second samples of copyrighted works are legal, that's not what was decided in court. The sample has to be insignificant in the sense that the original must not be recognisable. A three second sample of a drum pattern may be generic enough to fall into this classification, but the way Danger Mouse's mash ups use samples is clearly not. Frankly, if the talentless twat wants to do cover versions he should get some musicians in - the results might sound a bit less like a Jive Bunny novelty song.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can get the download from NPR

    See Wikipedia's cite notes. Here is a link in case it changes:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danger_Mouse_and_Sparklehorse_Present:_Dark_Night_of_the_Soul&oldid=290905110

    @Peter Foulkes: Danger Mouse is distributing it himself from his website www.dnots.com. No EMI involved.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    DM for the New Speaker of The House of Commons

    How quickly can we get The DM (not this modern, human sized, record producing copy) in to Parliament so that he can become the next Speaker ?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    downloaded on the weekend . . .

    . . . and it's growing on me

    Paris, nothing grows on her, clean as a whistle ;-)

  20. Dave
    Pirate

    Legality

    "It was an underground phenomenon but was illegal"

    In an article from such a reputable source, I would have expected a little more explanation of that line - was it an incitement to violence or something?

    Or was it just a little _civil_ copyright matter?

  21. Tony

    I demand...

    ...That all musicians should be locked up.

    They all plagarise notes that have been used before and just play them in a different order. Thieves the lot of them!

    They should either come up with some new notes or not be allowed to charge for their music.

    :p

    I can't comment on the artistic value of what this Mr Mouse produces, as have never listened to his stuff - I may check it out this evening when I get home (although the mention of Jay-Z puts me off). In general though, DJs do not get enough credit for their work.

    A good DJ uses samples from prior work, but they do something different and innovative with it. They create something new and often something that appeals to an entirely different audience to the original work they 'stole'. That being the case the person that produced the original has not lost out in any way, so how exactly are they being wronged?

    There does obviously have to be some common sense - Playing huge chunks of an existing work with minimal modification is clearly not adding anything significant and IS just plagarism, but all too often people with no taste for or understanding of dance music just dismiss DJs as parasites. That's bollocks. A good DJ is every bit as much a musician as the bloke the played the guitar or sang the lyric he samples/remixes.

    Interesting video here on how one 6 second drum loop is the basis of whole genres of modern music:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

    If The Winstons had jealously guarded their creation and sued the hell out of anyone that reused it, the history of dance music would be very different and while some of you rocktards probably don't care, an awful lot of us feel the music world would be poorer as a result.

  22. W

    See also:

    "Jaydiohead": a Jay-Z / Radiohead mash-up by Minty Fresh Beats. Preferable to both of the originals in my opinion.

    (Perhaps not so) incidentally, Radiohead were signed to Parlaphone - an EMI company.

    Will they never learn?

  23. John
    Coat

    Crumbs cheif!

    Why bittorrent when you can just google? :)

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3671541784982515877&hl=en

    Cheers,

    John

  24. Scott
    Heart

    @AC, 12:25

    BT is all very well, but I picked up the DVDs from Tescos for under 7 quid in 2001...

    ;)

    the kids love 'em.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Listened to some of it already

    Some just isn't my taste but the rest is kick ass, nice job :-).

  26. Roger Heathcote

    @AC

    Since when is a "mash-up" (in my day we called it copying, sampling, or simply theft!) of someone else's creative work inovative and exciting??

    Er, August 1962 Warhol/Monroe I believe.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Hmm...

    Now why would I waste $50 to buy an album that includes a free burnable disc when I can do the same with my own bought for less than .10 cents each and do it that way for free? After all you are promoting the method of getting your songs and/or others like it. Thanks but no thanks but still thanks for the idea that I can still get your content for free ;)

    A fan that loves what you do and shall do so in its freest form.

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