am going to mardi gras today - read this and download - enjoy, i hear the album is great.
February 24, 2004 | For Immediate Release
U of Iowa Professor to Join Copyright Civil Disobedience Planned February
24th
Contact:
Kembrew McLeod – kembrew@kembrew.com
Phone – 319-621-4620
Also:
Downhill Battle (www.dowhillbattle.org)
Holmes Wilson - hw@downhillbattle.org
Phone: 508-963-7832 / Fax: 775-878-0379
Grey Tuesday (www.greytuesday.org)
DOWNLOAD THE "GREY ALBUM" AT BOTTOM OF PAGE
DOWNHILL BATTLE (February 24, 2004) – In defiance of dozens of cease-and-desist letters already served, University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod will join a large coalition of websites in an online protest that will 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 an innovative hip-hop triumph, but EMI sent cease-and-desist letters to any Web site that offers it for free.
This Tuesday, "Grey Tuesday," a coalition of hundreds of sites, including the non-UI-affiliated Kembrew.com -- http://kembrew.com -- 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. "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 record, and 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 work -- 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).
