Copyright Criminals – the 2009 documentary have released a special DVD edition with extras from the likes of Clyde Stubblefield (the original Funky Drummer – although I dispute the ‘Most sampled drummer’ tag as Greg Coleman who did Amen break in the Winstons has been sampled in many more songs since 1989!).
So to promote it the ‘Copyright Criminals All Star Band’ was formed with Chuck D, Clyde, ?uestlove, Black Thought and The Roots appeared on Jimmy Fallon doing Fight The Power with Eclectic Method doing video mixing…very good and always great to see Chuck D on television for once – as well as Eclectic Method.
And here’s the video mix Eclectic Method did from the documentary for the original launch:
https://vimeo.com/8683466
I wonder if they’ll release a non-US version (currently it’s surprisingly a region 1 US/Canada only DVD according to Amazon – documentaries usually are all regions?) This new version seems only to be available on US Amazon too sadly. Like with the official video from the Jimmy Fallon performance (linked from the CC site, ‘not available outside US’) it shows you can be a ‘copyright criminal’ but still have region locked documentaries and appearances…:-(
So love to whoever posted the Jimmy Fallon elsewhere so those of us outside the US could see it, hope it stays…wouldn’t that be ironic if it got pulled? (EDIT: it did!)
Reminds me I’ve found the collision of worlds between these documentaries on illegal copyright a bit strange. It’s great to get coverage and people interested and documenting what we all do – from mashups to remixes to sample collage – but apart from a few of them they still follow the old rules when releasing their product. The films such as CC, RIP: Remix Manifesto et al cover all of this illegal copyright free-for-all party and piracy shenanigans – but when it comes to releasing their film it’s back to the old routine: film festival – distributor – premieres – exclusive channel play then maybe a DVD (region locked?) year or two later if you’re lucky – definitely not available to freely share or download even when using content that has been crowdsourced. And I really do hope the places that do allow download don’t add DRM.
It’s depressing that the radical content doesn’t leak out into the form of the film itself?
The only one I know that has walked the walk and talk the talk in that manner is Steal This Film 1 and 2, who covered the whole Piratebay and Napster and copyright freedom movement then released their film onto bittorrent. And yes I have the likes of Fairmount on my Mac that means I can watch films region-free etc – but amazed that I should have to for a film about those very issues of content-restriction and being locked in by corporates through copyright. Ironic, huh?
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