The Licensing Plate

GagaVille: Lady Gaga goes to FarmVille

The first trailer for the Lady Gaga FarmVille integration:

CIS Fair Use Legal Experts Answer Fair Use Questions About YouTube

American University Presents: ‘Fair Use and Online Video’

Remixes, mashups, fan tributes and other creative work burgeoning in online video often use copyrighted material without permission or payment. When is it fair to do so? In many cases, creators can employ fair use, a key feature of copyright law.

Welcome to a code of best practices in fair use for online video, and to studies and other information that help you understand the importance of fair use in maintaining an open door for tomorrow’s creativity. For deeper resources, including teaching materials, background on the law, video examples of fair use in action, and other codes of practice, go to centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse.

Branded Entertainment’s Big Role in China

John Hegarty, Creative Director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, shares his thoughts on the future of marketing in China.

Digg Interviews Trent Reznor

TorrentFreak TV Episode 8

Nike Edits Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Run’: Same Song, Different Meaning

Gnarls Barkley’s “Run” has the right energy for this spot, and it seems to fit, so long as you don’t listen too closely to the lyrics.

Nike begins the spot with the third verse:

Yeah I’m on the run
See where I’m coming from
When you see me coming run
Before you see what I’m running from
No time for question asking time is passing by
Alright

Here is the first verse:

Yeah its still the same
Can’t you feel the pain
When the needle hits the vein
Ain’t nothing like the real thing
I’ve seen it once before
And oh it’s something else
Good god

Some people think the song is about drugs, some about pedophilia, others about music (the “needle hits the vein” being the needle of a turntable hitting the vein/groove of a vinyl LP).   Music would be good.  Drugs and pedophilia, not so much.

Sometimes an effective music license has as much to do with what you don’t use from a particular recording as it does with what you do use.  In this case, Nike parsed “Run” carefully so as to avoid any potential PR headaches from a consumer who might have a negative interpretation of the lyrics.  By beginning with the third verse the song becomes more about the action of running than the idea of what you are running from.

(Video) Twouble with Twitters

TorrentFreak TV Episode 7

Via TorrentFreak

Numa Numa Guy Gets Down with GEICO Gecko

Via adRants (full story here):

Remember Gary Brolsma, the Numa Numa Guy? Of course you do. Hoping to tie his lovable lip-syncing magic to a big brand, The Martin Agency tapped him to produce “Numa Numa Guy with GEICO,” an amateur-style vid where he sings Somebody’s Watchin’ Me while GEICO’s trademark gecko dances behind him.

Winners of Colin Meloy’s Twitter Songwriting Contest

Last Friday, the 13th no less, Colin Meloy of The Decembrists requested his Twitter followers to record a song about Linda Ronstadt and to post the results to YouTube.

ok: experiment. Write a song and youtube yourself playing it and I’ll post the best one here. Topic: Linda Ronstadt.

10:21 PM Mar 13th from web

Today he has announced the winners.

In the Pro category:

A tie between Rebecca Gates (of The Spinanes)

and Steve Page (former Bare Naked Ladies frontman)

In the real people category,@musicalmonk with “Wake Up, Linda”:

The Complete CMW Debate Between Bob Lefsetz and Gene Simmons

This video is of much better quality than the clip posted last week.  Bob has some additional thoughts and commentary here.

Licensed Music as Copyright Infringement

I stumbled upon the below Citibank Identity Theft ad when I was doing research for another post.  The commercial was produced in 2006 and features the composition “Unbreak My Heart” by Diane Warren.  This is obviously a rerecord.  The original version was made famous by Toni Braxton on her 1996 album Secrets.

I licensed this song for Citibank.   We did a pretty exhaustive creative search and arrived at this composition.  I still think it’s a great fit.

So how is this an infringement.  Well, the licensing term on the composition has expired which means this commercial should no longer be available for public viewing.  The commercial is owned by Citibank, the composition by Diane Warren.  I am sure that neither one of them authorized this use.  So in essence this is two infringements for the price of one.  And that doesn’t even get into the talent, who if he is SAG, should be paid for all on-line uses of this commercial, which was originally produced for TV.

Okay, so why should anybody care if this is on YouTube.  It seems pretty harmless.  Somebody was a fan of the spot, they found it funny, which should make Citibank happy since that was the point, and they decided to put it on their YouTube page.

(more…)

Bob Lefsetz/Gene Simmons Closing Statements

The audio is terrible.  But those of you who have been following this still might want to give it a shot.  Lefsetz has some additional comments here.

Obama tells Indiana Live Casino: No, You Can’t

Every product wants Obama’s endorsement. Only a very few, like Blackberry and iPod, are lucky enough to receive it. The rest will just have to try and crash the party.

Indiana Live Casino made the effort and was summarily shot down by Obama’s people for a right of publicity infringement.

Of course any publicity is good publicity. Dennis Gomes, CEO and partner of gaming operations for Cordish, the casino’s parent company, always expected a request from the White House to pull the ad. But he got the buzz he was hoping for.

Watch it below before a takedown notice causes it to vanish forever.

Shepard Fairey on Fighting the AP Over Obama HOPE Image

Patrick Ewing Chewing

I don’t know that this is going to help sell Snickers.  But it’s memorable.  And it’s a celebrity endorsement…sort of.  And we follow celebrity endorsements…sort of or otherwise.  And it’s funny.  Patrick Chewing…get it.  That’s funny.  It’s funny that TBWA thought this up, pitched it and that Mars went with it.

Patrick sounds angry.  Maybe because he never won that elusive championship with the Knicks.  Or because he’s in a Snickers ad.  Either way, from here on out he’ll always be Patrick Chewing to me.

Click here for more information on this campaign.

South Park spoofs Pepsi, with poop

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  So what do you think?  Will Pepsi be flattered?

Pepsi - “Yes you can”:

Comedy Central – “Pepsi/Poop”:

Eliza Dushku for Hulu for Dollhouse

Is it a Hulu ad?  Is it a Dollhouse ad?  Is it both?  Does it matter?  I think Hulu will be around long after Dollhouse.  But for now, Hulu gets Eliza Dushku (I suspect on the cheap, following a few words between her endorsement agent and her TV agent), as she tries to breath some life into her new program.

Alec Baldwin continues on as the voice of Hulu.  Does he ever not have a voiceover gig.

TorrentFreak TV Episode 6