[Rumori] Rumori Digest, Vol 3, Issue 17
Kembrew McLeod
kembrew at kembrew.com
Mon Jul 21 12:57:29 PDT 2003
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This is the latest digest for the Rumori list.
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Illegal Art show article in today's Salon (Steev Hise)
2. Re: Illegal Art show article in today's Salon (Lloyd Dunn)
3. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (Steev Hise)
4. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (Brian Flemming)
5. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (King Wilson)
6. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (Jon Leidecker)
7. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (King Wilson)
8. Re: lars owns the chords of E and F (Vicki Bennett)
9. unsubscrive (Renato Oliveira)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:48:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steev Hise <steev at detritus.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] Illegal Art show article in today's Salon
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID:
<Pine.LNX.4.44.0307181345440.19095-100000 at jetsam.detritus.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
on Thu, 17 Jul 2003 Carrie McLaren told me:
->I know this is probably going to sound anal, but Salon has really
->been struggling to stay afloat. The only thing that keeps them going
->is money from subscribers. You can always read the article without
->paying if you spend a few seconds watching an ad, so it's not like
->you have to subscribe to read it.
Well, could someone at least post the URL, i can't find the damn
thing. Or do you want to provide salon.com with a complete
clickthrough trail along with the accompanying ad impressions?
merci,
smh
Steev Hise . steev at detritus.net . http://detritus.net/steev
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The truth is that the world isn't going to end. It has ended."
-Craig Dremann
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 22:54:27 +0200
From: Lloyd Dunn <ll at detritus.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] Illegal Art show article in today's Salon
To: rumori at detritus.net
Message-ID: <p06001a00bb3e0ec7b8e5@[192.168.0.201]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
here you go.
http://salon.com/ent/feature/2003/07/17/illegal_art/index.html
>on Thu, 17 Jul 2003 Carrie McLaren told me:
>
>->I know this is probably going to sound anal, but Salon has really
>->been struggling to stay afloat. The only thing that keeps them going
>->is money from subscribers. You can always read the article without
>->paying if you spend a few seconds watching an ad, so it's not like
>->you have to subscribe to read it.
>
>Well, could someone at least post the URL, i can't find the damn
>thing. Or do you want to provide salon.com with a complete
>clickthrough trail along with the accompanying ad impressions?
--
# Lloyd Dunn : ll at detritus.net
# The Tape-beatles and Public Works Productions : http://pwp.detritus.net/
# Photostatic Magazine Retrograde Archive : http://psrf.detritus.net/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 17:02:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steev Hise <steev at detritus.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID:
<Pine.LNX.4.44.0307181658530.21776-100000 at jetsam.detritus.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
on Wed, 16 Jul 2003 Every Man told me:
->you do realize this is a hoax, right?
wow, it's amazing how fast and far this hoax spread.
how great.
i believed it for a few seconds, but i did think it was kinda
wierd that all the URLs were at "scoopthis.com"
here's Unfaith's explanation:
http://www.unfaith.net/pages/hoax/
smh
Steev Hise . steev at detritus.net . http://detritus.net/steev
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"...dissatisfaction itself became a commodity as soon as economic
abundance could extend production to the processing of such raw
materials."
-Guy Debord
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 17:13:53 -0700
From: Brian Flemming <vagrant at slumdance.com>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <E18448BE-B97D-11D7-AAB4-0003935B6D2A at slumdance.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; delsp=yes; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
It's an amazing hoax.
I posted a link to the story on my blog with the note, "It's funny
'cause it's (almost) true..." and that *still* wasn't enough to clue
people in. I got emails expressing outrage at Metallica's arrogance and
a ping from another blogger who thought it was real.
http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/000245.html
Still, for my own reasons, I don't think a hoax has really succeeded
until it causes the Korean stock market to lose $3 billion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2916135.stm
B
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Brian Flemming
email: vagrant at slumdance.com
blog: http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
On Friday, July 18, 2003, at 05:02 PM, Steev Hise wrote:
> on Wed, 16 Jul 2003 Every Man told me:
>
> ->you do realize this is a hoax, right?
>
> wow, it's amazing how fast and far this hoax spread.
> how great.
>
> i believed it for a few seconds, but i did think it was kinda
> wierd that all the URLs were at "scoopthis.com"
>
> here's Unfaith's explanation:
>
> http://www.unfaith.net/pages/hoax/
>
>
> smh
>
>
> Steev Hise . steev at detritus.net . http://detritus.net/steev
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> "...dissatisfaction itself became a commodity as soon as economic
> abundance could extend production to the processing of such raw
> materials."
> -Guy Debord
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rumori mailing list
> Rumori at detritus.net
> http://detritus.net/mailman/listinfo/rumori
> older archives: http://detritus.net/contact/rumori/
>
>
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 19:15:49 -0500
From: King Wilson <kingwilson at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <26A9E562-B97E-11D7-9ECA-003065489234 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
On Friday, July 18, 2003, at 07:02 PM, Steev Hise wrote:
> on Wed, 16 Jul 2003 Every Man told me:
>
> ->you do realize this is a hoax, right?
>
> wow, it's amazing how fast and far this hoax spread.
> how great.
and here's an article from CNN about how far it spread....
Radio stations and Web sites were flooded yesterday with news that the
seminal heavy metal band,ÝMetallica, hadÝlaunched yet another lawsuit
to protect its music from theft.Ý This time, the rock pioneersÝwere
purportedly suing a Canadian band called Unfaith for trademark
infringement over the use of a "Metallica-branded" chords E and F.
The only problem: The story was a ruse.
"That's a hoax," Metallica's Los Angeles-based lawyer,ÝJill Pietrini,
told Courttv.com.
Freelance commercial designer and aspiring musicianÝÝErik Ashley, 29,
cleverly concoctedÝthe scam which sent users toÝan MTV.com storyÝabout
the suit, which included a link toÝa fictional response from the band.
"We're not saying we own those two chords, individually," said drummer
Lars Ulrich in Ashley's spoof.
Ý"That would be ridiculous," the faux quote continued.Ý"We're just
saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F
with our music."
Ashley evenÝtossed inÝaÝbarb from Metallica's lawyer, Pietrini, for
added realism.
"They continue to shamelessly feature the two chords on their Web site
song samples and we just can't have that," he wrote.
Exhausted after a day of fielding calls from dozens ofÝnewspapers and
radio stations (including National Public Radio) as well as The Onion
and Rolling Stone magazine, the Montreal, Canada resident told
Courttv.com that he never expected the ruse to catch on.
"It has taken on a life of its own," said Ashley, who ran a spoof Web
site, SpoofThis.com, from 1997 to 2000.Ý "Our server crashed 3 times
today ... The hits are already well over 100,000 visits."
The viral spread of Ashley's ruse sent tremors through message-board
communities, where some members were shocked, some nonplussed, and some
incredulous.
Judging by many of the posted messages, Metallica's yen forÝlawsuits
helped the spoof take wing.
"I'm not sure what's worse, that the story is a fake, or that it was
actually conceivable that Metallica would do that,"Ý said one boarder
with the nickname TANSTAAFL.
That was part of Ashley's motivation.
"We all know about the Napster issue, the perfume company, the tire
makers,ÝMetallica has sued them all,"Ýhe said.Ý"The idea behind this
parody was to gauge just how much their reputation has suffered as a
result of the suits. Would people go so far as to believe that
something this extraordinary, this outlandish, could conceivably be
true?"
Apparently so.ÝA spokesperson for the band's record label,
Elektra,Ýdeclined toÝcomment.
While Ashley's ruse was clever,Ýit wasÝnot impossible to detect.Ý
Neither the MTV story nor theÝsupposed Metallica response were hosted
on the network's or band's own servers, but wereÝdistributedÝfrom
Ashley'sÝScoopThis.com server.
And a quick review of songs available onÝUnfaith'sÝofficial Web site
(actually just Ashley's one-man band) would make even a casual listener
skeptical of Ulrich's supposed claim of "confusion" and "deception."
Whereas Metallica sings about dark themes like death and suicide in
songs like "Sanitarium," "Kill 'em All," and "Unforgiven," Unfaith's
poppy Christian rock tunes featureÝdecidedly un-Metallica lyrics like
"I wanna be Jesus now/Let me be your Jesus now" over techno and
guitar-flavored riffs.Ý
A quick search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office'sÝonline
database turned up registrations for Metallica branded footballs,
Metallica-branded sweatshirts and sunglasses -- but no
"Metallica-branded chords."
And, as one legal expert told Courttv.com,ÝAshley'sÝnotion that the E-F
chord progression constitutedÝtrademark infringement, rather than
copyright infringement, may not haveÝstood up in court, either.Ý
Such a song structure issue "typically in the province of copyright
law, which relates to any type of artistic expression fixed in a
tangible medium," said Michael Friedman, an entertainment/intellectual
property partner with the New York firm Jenkens & Gilchrist Parker
Chapin.
Still, the scheme was clever enough to work, largely because Ashley
carefully reproduced the design templates used by the MTV.com and
Metallica Web sites.ÝTo the casual observer, the sites were
indistinguishable from the real ones.
"Getting all of the links working was the hardest part," he said.Ý"If
you click on the option to post on the MTV.com message board about this
story, the link would actually take you there to the real thing."
Ashley even quoted himself in the fake MTV.com story. "I thought it was
a prank at first," he had himself say, playing David to Metallica's
Goliath.Ý "Now I'm not sure what to think."
OneÝmight think Ashley's publicity would spur his budding music
career,Ýbut he calls itÝjust a "hobby."ÝAshley says he's more worried
aboutÝfinding a full-time job, and that the spoof will probably end up
costing him money in bandwidth.
But it's a fair trade-off for him.
"I may be reaching here, but I wouldn't put it past Lars to actually
approve of the parody because it exposes the Internet for what it is,"
he said, meaning the kind of place where even legitimate news sites
might run with the story without a second thought.
"The real irony," said Ashley, "is that none of our songs use E and F
in that order."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/07/17/ctv.metallica/
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 18:51:19 -0700
From: Jon Leidecker <wobbly at detritus.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <v04003a01bb3e53b1a3b7@[192.168.1.4]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>It's an amazing hoax.
>
>I posted a link to the story on my blog with the note, "It's funny
>'cause it's (almost) true..." and that *still* wasn't enough to clue
>people in. I got emails expressing outrage at Metallica's arrogance and
>a ping from another blogger who thought it was real.
>
from the unfaith site's 'official response'
MSNBC's Jeannette Walls printed the story as
fact in yesterday morning's "The Scoop" column...
and retracted it minutes later with no explanation.
Dotmusic.com did the same, as did
Ananova.com in the UK.
welcome to the internet journalism... post instantly, and if something
turns out not to be true, just replace the fact on your site WITH NO
EXPLANATION! It Never Happened.
we're all going to be losing our minds within a few years trying to keep
track of this kind of shit.
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 21:18:28 -0500
From: King Wilson <kingwilson at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <48A18E7E-B98F-11D7-B071-003065489234 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed
and on an even more revealing note....
The band behind the Internet hoax that duped media organizations
ranging from radio stations to Jimmy Kimmel Live and MSNBC, has offered
up an official statement about what they did and why they did it. The
statement is below:Ý
UNFAITHíS OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON THE METALLICA E-F CHORD CONTROVERSY
by Erik Ashley
You might have heard about this on CNN, MSNBC, Ananova, or on one of
the thousands of radio stations across America since Wednesday.
International rock superstars Metallica is suing an independent [sic]
Canadian band over unsanctioned usage of the E and F chords ; that band
being Unfaith ; us. Letís make this clear: This story is SATIRE.
But as with most parodies, it is also a statement in sheepís clothing ;
one that inadvertently[sic] ended up making a point FOR the band, as
much as anything else.
We all know about the Napster issue, the perfume company, the lipstick
company, the tire makers... Metallica has sued them all. Rightly or
wrongly, no one is judging that. However, the idea behind this parody
was to gauge, after all that litigation, just how willing America was
to buy a story as extraordinary[sic]óas outlandishóas them claiming
ownership of a 2-chord progression.Ý
If this week was any indication, America is all too willing to believe
it. It all started here :Ý The story was originally planted on
411mania.com, who were in on it.Ý
Within minutes, literally hundreds of message boards lit up, including
those of legitimate music news sources. Then, Fark.com jumped on board
and promoted the 411 link. With the help of these two websites, the
story got rebroadcasted from one news source to the next.Ý
Jimmy Kimmel treated the story as fact on his ABC talk show, his
researchers never bothering to contact any of the parties involved.
MSNBCís Jeannette Walls printed the story as fact in yesterday
morningís ìThe Scoopî column... and retracted it minutes later with no
explanation.ÝÝ
Dotmusic.com did the same, as did Ananova.com in the UK.Ý
Radio stations across America have been broadcasting the news as fact
for days, going so far as organizing boycott petitions against
Metallica on the stations they work for... and even playing our MP3
samples on the air simply to spite them. What is wrong with this
picture? If you want to play us because you enjoy our music, thatís one
thing. But playing us just to spite another band..?
Rolling Stone was the first publication to contact the parties
involved. Then came Court TV / CNN, and MuchMusic. They took the time,
and got the real story.Ý
As for the hoax itself, it generated over 200,000 hits in just two
days, and crashed our servers repeatedly.
Beyond the numbers, however, I think it was TANSTAAFL ó one of the
thousands of internet message board posters discussing this story this
week ó who said it best : ìIím not sure whatís worse, that the story is
a fake, or that it was actually conceivable that Metallica would do
that.î
In truth, none of us ever expected the parody to reach as far and wide
as it did. What originally began as something of a psychology study on
Metallicaís reputation instead turned into an exposÈ on how dangerous
the internet ó and its media ó can be.
ìBecause if itís on the net, itís got to be trueî ô
Both the supposed ìMTV.comî and ìMetallica.comî pages were
painstakingly recreated for the parody to be effective just as Saturday
Night Live goes through great lengths to recreate a celebrityís facial
features and voice ó but both pages have a clear ìScoopThis.comî notice
at the bottom. And although ScoopThis.com had been technically offline
since 2000, its documents still very clearly state that anything found
on its domain is fake. So who should Metallica be St.Angry with over
this? Us, for what we thought was an obvious parody (we didnít even
bother masking the url fields)... or every single so-called legitimate
news outlet for spreading it as truth? Itís hard to ignore the fact
that the runaway hoax ended up exposing the internet for what it is,
with legitimate news sites spreading one of the most incredible
fictional stories we could come up with without pause, much less
research.
You would think it was 1938, and this was War of Worlds.
I canít help walking away from this whole bit actually sympathizing
with the band. Because even as the hoax was exposed, diehard
Metalli-bashers maintained their positions on the grounds that this was
something Metallica COULD have done. Overlooking one very important
fact : They didnít.Ý
In the end, I am left wondering... is this the kind of unbiasedÝ
journalism I can expect if I become a public figure?
Reactions now that people are slowly catching on to the hoax have
ranged across the board from people thinking it was a brilliant and
well-executed prank, to people being upset by what they feel is a cheap
publicity stunt... to those people, I can only offer the reminder that
we have nothing to sell. No CDís were printed in preparation for
this, and we havenít responded to a single donation offer made to us
towards our fictional upcoming legal battle.
Unfaith may have received some short-term exposure out of this, and Iíd
be lying if I said I didnít think this was great. Wouldnít you? Sure,
some people will stick around with us when this is over, but most
wonít. As James Hetfield once put it, however, the Memory Remains.
As for the fallout, Jimmy Kimmel has already apologized for spreading
an astonishing story as truth. MSNBC, Ananova and others, however,
havenít ó content in simply laying low after eliminating the evidence.
To each their own.
As for me? Iíll quote from an interview I did with UGO.com last year,
which you could easily Google-up. On the subject of my influences, I
answered, among other names, ìthe ëcommercial eraí Metallica.
Everything since the black album. Yep, that includes Load and Reload.î
I didnít mind saying it then, and I donít mind repeating it today. This
hoax was merely a joke that America wished so hard to be true, that it
slowly stopped mattering if it was or not.
In the end, this leaves us with two ultimate ironies :
First, none of our songs were ever based on an E-F progression (I canít
sing that high).Ý
And second, MTV.com remains the only entertainment news website never
to have touched this story.
Erik Ashley
Singer/Songwriter
Unfaith | www.unfaith.net
Montreal, Canada
http://www.antimusic.com/news/03/july/item27.shtml
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 10:43:05 +0100
From: Vicki Bennett <peoplelikeus at mistral.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Rumori] lars owns the chords of E and F
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <a05111b01bb3ec2d88a70@[81.106.44.139]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Hoaxes are such a beautiful sign that all life as we know it is
morphing into something we don't even recognise any more, we're all
being left behind.
>from the unfaith site's 'official response'
>
> MSNBC's Jeannette Walls printed the story as
> fact in yesterday morning's "The Scoop" column...
> and retracted it minutes later with no explanation.
>
> Dotmusic.com did the same, as did
> Ananova.com in the UK.
>
>
>welcome to the internet journalism... post instantly, and if something
>turns out not to be true, just replace the fact on your site WITH NO
>EXPLANATION! It Never Happened.
>
>we're all going to be losing our minds within a few years trying to keep
>track of this kind of shit.
>
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 16:02:10 +0100 (BST)
From: Renato Oliveira <pureolivertree at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [Rumori] unsubscrive
To: "Detritus discussion list." <rumori at detritus.net>
Message-ID: <20030719150210.11644.qmail at web42001.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
I wish to unsubscrive!
Thank you!
Vicki Bennett <peoplelikeus at mistral.co.uk> wrote:
Hoaxes are such a beautiful sign that all life as we know it is
morphing into something we don't even recognise any more, we're all
being left behind.
>from the unfaith site's 'official response'
>
> MSNBC's Jeannette Walls printed the story as
> fact in yesterday morning's "The Scoop" column...
> and retracted it minutes later with no explanation.
>
> Dotmusic.com did the same, as did
> Ananova.com in the UK.
>
>
>welcome to the internet journalism... post instantly, and if something
>turns out not to be true, just replace the fact on your site WITH NO
>EXPLANATION! It Never Happened.
>
>we're all going to be losing our minds within a few years trying to keep
>track of this kind of shit.
>
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End of Rumori Digest, Vol 3, Issue 17
*************************************
--
(( ( (( ( (( ( (((Kembrew 11 McLeod))) ) )) ) )) ) ))
http://kembrew.com
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Communication Studies
University of Iowa
1218 College St.
Iowa City, IA 52245
(319) 341-3583
David Bowie, father figure: "Ola Hudson--who in fact was Guns N'
Roses guitarist Slash's mum--she was my girlfriend, you see. I
sometimes used to put him to bed at nights, little Slash. Who'd have
guessed?"
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