zaheela:
Can't we just focus on the fact that glee is a lazy mess and that they don't respect artists and their work?

We could, but why single out Glee? Almost nobody cites the arranger if they use a non-original version of the song. Songs like Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" or "This Wheel's on Fire" rarely give credits to later authors who are generally the arrangements from which other artists work. I loves me some Dylan, but he's a good example of people doing new arrangements , becoming more or less the definitive work, and no credit offered.

I know it's popular to hate Glee, and it's kind of deserved. It's a trashy show with a lot of lackluster covers that make you wish you were listening to the better version. But in this case, what are they doing that isn't already done by everybody else? If this wasn't Johnny C and Glee, would there be anywhere near this outrage? I seriously doubt it. Coulton is a nerd icon and Glee is a popular target, but they haven't done anything here that you can distinctly call them out on.

Sarah LeBoeuf:
Instead, he was told that he should be "happy for the exposure." "They do not credit me, and have not even publicly acknowledged that it's my version - so you know, it's kind of SECRET exposure," he wrote.

This is what I was going to say, but evidently John has common sense like the rest of us. How the hell is it giving him exposure if you make absolutely no attempt to say "By the way, we got this from a guy named John Coulton"?

Seriously, I want this show to be cancelled in the worst of ways. The fact that it's a thing annoys me to no end.

To quote Yahtzee, There is no middle finger big enough!

Does anyone know if he has any legal grounds to sue?

Eri:
So is there anything at all from stopping him from copy pasting songs from Glee, and selling a "new original album"? After all, if it's just a cover, it doesn't matter right?

Except if he was going to do it for an album that people would then pay for he would need to seek permission.

Not from Glee but from all the people who Glee have covered.

Seeing as Glee is just a show that covers songs.

I'm starting a movement. Torrent Episodes of GLEE, Post on youtube with the title "Be happy for the Exposure."

I've made a decision. I'm going to go into the kitchen. I'm going to turn on the dishwasher. And then I am going to climb inside.

OT: Why? Why? Glee flew under my radar because nobody talked about it much BUT WHY? Excuse me everybody, I'm off to hunt FOXes!

Honestly, this is just another small thing that shows how intellectually and creatively bankrupt Glee is. I show about overproduced covers of popular songs with all set to a vapid generic high school plot-line.

All they really needed to do is credit Coulton and there wouldn't have been an issue. I suppose you could make the argument that the musical score is distinct from the original track, but that would probably be more trouble that it's worth. I congratulate Jonny C for drumming up all the publicity he can out of this.

I used to like Glee but these dudes are assholes.

And their version of BGB is awful... The new people can't act or sing.

You know I never had an opinion on Glee... but after watching this clip of watching a bunch of pasty white people looking all cute smug and self congratulatory, it turns my stomach. I think this has to be how white people are viewed by other races when we think they're not looking.

I look forward to the inevitable mass Internet Counterattack. Maybe this might just be enough to kill Glee off once and for all.

I agree this is wrong and people should be given credit if credit is due.

With that said, I neither know nor care who Jonathan Coulton is and the version of Baby Got Back that aired last night was horrible, but if it was in anyway similar to his version I wouldnt be raising such a fuss in the first place. Yes I watch Glee.

albino boo:

Falseprophet:
What a ridiculous artifact of US copyright law that an arranger isn't entitled to royalties or even so much as credit for their original work. Maurice Ravel is turning in his grave.

Arrangers are entitled to royalties and credit for their work if they have asked the owner of the copyright for permission and pay royalties on their work. Now this is my guess at what happened Glee went to the publishers of the original to negotiate for rights to use that first, after all their is no point going to the arranger before getting the rights to the original. At which point they discovered Copland had not any legal right to use the original and had not being paying royalties. So Copland has no copyright, but the publishers probably won't sue him because he can use the parody defence that was used in the 80's for an explicit rap version of stand by me. Until such times as a court case is heard, Fox can only pay and give acknowledgement to the properly constituted copyright holder. Further more, any statements that Fox make on the subject could be used in a court case between Copland and the publisher. The safest thing to do is what Fox have done.

The safest thing to do is not use that one song out of the billions possible or use that one song in its original arrangement.

Not that I'd promote it, but if Fox now complains about anyone pirating their shows, then they must realize how big a bunch of hypocrites they are, if not legally, then morally.

It took them a tiny amount of effort to write to Coulton's people and tell them "HAHAHA fuck you"... but it would've taken even less effort to just credit him. That policy is just arsehole for arsehole's sake... WHY WOULD ANYONE... Ugh

Loki_The_Good:
Not that I'd promote it, but if Fox now complains about anyone pirating their shows, then they must realize how big a bunch of hypocrites they are, if not legally, then morally.

Fox, Morals?

Have you heard of a little thing called fox news? It's kind of a big deal on the internet =P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies#Photo_manipulation

my personal favorite example.

Frozengale:
"happy for the exposure"

What perfect little douchebags these people are.

You have no idea. I heard Ryan Murphy, the creator, asked Kings of Leon if he could use their song, and when they said no, he threw a shitfit to magazines, saying somehting like, "Thank you, Kings of Leon, for completely not getting it," and the band responded, "We just didn't let someone use our song, which we do a lot."

And also Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters went on record saying he hated the show and would never let them use his music. Yeah, this sounds par for the course.

So what I get from this is that Fox is the eBaum's World of American television networks.

mrblakemiller:

Frozengale:
"happy for the exposure"

What perfect little douchebags these people are.

You have no idea. I heard Ryan Murphy, the creator, asked Kings of Leon if he could use their song, and when they said no, he threw a shitfit to magazines, saying somehting like, "Thank you, Kings of Leon, for completely not getting it," and the band responded, "We just didn't let someone use our song, which we do a lot."

And also Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters went on record saying he hated the show and would never let them use his music. Yeah, this sounds par for the course.

You forgot how he accused the Kings of Leon of being homophobes when they made a comment about his hissyfit, because everything becomes about bigotry with Ryan "I won't hire disabled actors to play disabled characters" Murphy.

lacktheknack:

rayen020:
I'm starting a movement. Torrent Episodes of GLEE, Post on youtube with the title "Be happy for the Exposure."

Make sure that you don't actually say what show it is, and censor any uses of the word "Glee".

I'm in. Let's do it

Cloudwolf616:
I like Glee........

That's good for you.

Wait, where's the rest of that post got to?

fedefrasis:

lacktheknack:

rayen020:
I'm starting a movement. Torrent Episodes of GLEE, Post on youtube with the title "Be happy for the Exposure."

Make sure that you don't actually say what show it is, and censor any uses of the word "Glee".

I'm in. Let's do it

This is a fantastic plan and I love you people for coming up with it.

The Hero Killer:
I agree this is wrong and people should be given credit if credit is due.

With that said, I neither know nor care who Jonathan Coulton is and the version of Baby Got Back that aired last night was horrible, but if it was in anyway similar to his version I wouldnt be raising such a fuss in the first place. Yes I watch Glee.

That version was a parody. They ripped off something that was intended to suck.

Zachary Amaranth:
snip

Dude what the hell are you doing? I'm trying to have a good old-fashioned internet freak out over this, and use this incident to justify my preconception about a certain show, and here you are, bringing logic into everything

FOX just loves pissing off the internet don't they? One day it's going to bite them in the ass, hopefully sooner rather than later.

zaheela:
So when the dead eyed tween starts asking if mr Colton ripped off glee and omg is he a fan comments pop up, should we be ok with that?

Seriously, if I hear that, I'm going to consider tying them to a chair and playing a history of modern music series for them. Hopefully it'll reverse the brain cell loss from the glee-ification process.

Originally I was considering using stairs and gravity, but I don't want to give fox any ammo.

I think it's too late for that. I heard someone at school talking about Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, so I mentioned to them that I was also a Daft Punk fan. A blank stare, followed by "Who's Daft Punk? Are they the ones who ripped of Kanye West?". Then everything went black, and when I woke up I was in Mexico and wearing nothing but some torn purple shorts I have no memory of putting on.

Don't be too surprised, folks. Big business wins against the little guy yet again. We need to be a lot more pissed off then we actually are.

Just wait 'till the next episode where they show a speck more creativity and sing "Re: Your music" in relation to a rival school (Who are of course rich posh and bastards, and have created their own song and then - *gasp!* - refusing to let Glee sing it! And then when Glee says they will anyway, they start talking about SUING THEM! THE BASTARDS!) including lyrics such as:

"All we wanna do is use your songs!
And furthermore, you twats, we'll just ignore any outcries.
All we wanna do is use your songs!
We're at an impasse here; Maybe we could compromise."

And then the rich posh bastard people realize the error of their ways in wanting their own creations to not be used without permission with only very minor changes to them without any credit whatsoever, But in a stunning twist, the Glee people decide to credit them anyway, stating that they realized themselves that the credit is the least they could do for the rich posh bastards who obviously didn't try AT ALL to make that stupid song they stole wholesale, and then they and the Glee club all go out and have cake! :3

theApoc:
I wonder if Sir-Mixalot got his money in either case?

That's an interesting thought.

Question: I don't watch 'Glee' so I just don't know the answer. Was there a 'Sir Mix A-Lot' credit in the credits for the song? Because that may just answer it.

Even if the whole thing is legit [which I doubt with pretty much ripping his melody off and it's good JoCo is looking in to if/how much they copied,] it's just bad form to not credit JoCo. Especially considering that he, and his lawyer, contacted FOX days before. They could of easily just added a 'Adapted Form JC From SMA' credit in the credits and there would be a much less backlash.

GamingAwesome1:

fedefrasis:

lacktheknack:

Make sure that you don't actually say what show it is, and censor any uses of the word "Glee".

I'm in. Let's do it

This is a fantastic plan and I love you people for coming up with it.

Good Idea! Torrent maybe... But defiantly just post 'Be happy for the Exposure' on all 'Glee' stuff. Peaceful protest :)

BlackStar42:
To quote Yahtzee, There is no middle finger big enough!

"Be happy with all the expose we refuse to give you"

What utter cunts.

"He should be happy for the exposure" I...wow, just wow. That is probably one of the most insultingly snobbish things I've ever read. Fuck Glee.