Category Archives: Fair Use

Does an Apple a day keep the Newsday away?

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A few days ago, I posted a YouTube video showing a viral ad from Newsday advertising its new iPad app.  The video shows a guy using an iPad to swat a fly, with the iPad shattering. Cool!

But the video is now down, and I wonder why. It wasn’t taken down by a DMCA take-down sent to YouTube, because the video now says it was removed by the user. An article at Networkworld.com confirms that Newsday removed the video. A Newsday rep stated: “We have taken the commercial ‘Flypaper’ down and its short, glorious run appears to be over.”

But why? Was the notoriously thin-skinned Apple upset? If so, that’s idiotic. Is Apple worried that people will start assaulting insects with their technology? Remember, Apple: iPads don’t kill people, people kill people!

Bottom line: if Apple is putting pressure on Newsday, shame on Apple. If Newsday — a news organization — is caving to demands from Apple, then double-shame on Newsday.

But as pointed out by Networkworld.com, we don’t know (yet) what happened, and Newsday is being tight-lipped with the reasons.

Well, Apple? Newsday?

Galactica: Sabotage smash-up

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Wired reports on Katie King’s excellent video Galactica: Sabotage, a kind of mash-up/homage to Spike Jones’ video for the Beastie Boys’ song Sabotage.  The new video substitutes clips from the recently ended Battlestar Galactica series, but in a way that almost perfectly tracks the images from Jones’ original video.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the original and new video.

I’m glad to see that nothing (yet) has been done to try to take down the video.  The video also makes me wonder about what we mean when we use the term “mash-up.”  As far as mash-ups go, Galactica: Sabotage is dissimilar to Danger Mouse’s mash-up classic Grey Album, which juxtaposed music samples from the Beatles’ White Album with vocals from Jay-Z’s Black Album.  In such a mash-up, you simultaneously hear portions from both sources.  It’s music with music.

However in form (but perhaps not function), Galactica: Sabotage is different.  Same music, but new video clips substituted for the original.  Perhaps such mash-ups by substitution are more like “smash-ups,” i.e., substitution + mash-up.  Like the Grey Album, there’s still juxtaposition, but the juxtaposition is provided by what’s absent rather than by what’s present.

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