"I think cumpig gives homosexuals a bad name." (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cumpig) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2008-05-10 16:32:00 |
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crystal castles: thieves or conspiracy? (tl;dr i know i know)
"Crystal Castles is a Toronto-based band that's gotten quite a lot of positive press for their use of 8-bit sounds, including a keyboard with an Atari chip. (And there's the source of the problem: this stuff is "hot" partly because it's novel to mainstream press.)
Unfortunately, some of Crystal Castles' sound apparently isn't their their own.
8-bit collective again noticed something is amiss, this time with their track "Insecticon." Far from simply sampling a track, the tune rearranges entire musical contents as the basis of the new tune. (Many in the 8-bit collective community at least claim they’re pro-sampling.)
There's a difference in this case, though: the tune in question is Creative Commons-licensed. It's possible Crystal Castles thought, incorrectly, that that meant "free." However, the CC license used specifically requires attribution, non-commercial use, and that the derivative work be released under the same license -- that's three strikes against Crystal Castles. The GPL license used in open source software has similar stipulations, and neither license means something isn't protected by copyright law -- the maker of something is still the copyright holder, and uses those rights to define the way in which they want their work used and shared."
Here are a couple songs that have raised a few eyebrows:
Crystal Castles - Insecticon (unreleased, on myspace)
Lo-Bat - My Little Droid Needs A Hand
"[This] track is also featured on CC's record label myspace
http://www.myspace.com/liesrecords
and although it NOW says lo-bat Vs. CC, it wasn’t before the story got found out:
http://discodirt.10pm.org/insection.png"
Crystal Castle released the following statement about this track:
"...songs with Lo-Bat samples were left off the CC album because we didn't have the sample clearance. Many songs were left off the CD because we needed more time to clear the samples. We are hoping to have the songs on a future release (maybe a rarities/demos/remixes compilation) and would love to clear this with Lo-Bat."
Logical enough explaination. However, there is also controversy surrounding their song "Love and Caring", released on 2007's Thrash Thrash Thrash. There are very noticable similarities between this song and Covox's track "Sunday". One "Game Boy musician", Nitro2k01, released spectral charts that compare the two songs, and pointed out comparisons.
Crystal Castles - Love and Caring (Thrash Thrash Thrash, 2007)
Covox - "Sunday" (Demo 1: Handheld Electropop)
What makes this even sketchier is that back in April it was discovered that Crystal Castles stole artwork from a man named Trevor Brown, which features pop artist Madonna with a black eye. It was featured on the cover of the Alice Practice 7", and t-shirts (See above image). Trevor Brown approached them about the use of his artwork, which they found off some anonymous flier, and asked them for payment. Apparently, they strung him along for quite a while without paying the $300, and continued selling the images. Their claim in this case was that they found the artwork and had hoped "the artist would come forward" so they could legitimately pay him, and apparently back in April they were still insistant on making it up to him.
IDK you guys, I just don't know. This all seems pretty shady to me. What do you think? Simple sampling, or plagiarism? Anyone heard any other sort of follow up to these accusations?
source 1, source 2, source 3.
"Crystal Castles is a Toronto-based band that's gotten quite a lot of positive press for their use of 8-bit sounds, including a keyboard with an Atari chip. (And there's the source of the problem: this stuff is "hot" partly because it's novel to mainstream press.)
Unfortunately, some of Crystal Castles' sound apparently isn't their their own.
8-bit collective again noticed something is amiss, this time with their track "Insecticon." Far from simply sampling a track, the tune rearranges entire musical contents as the basis of the new tune. (Many in the 8-bit collective community at least claim they’re pro-sampling.)
There's a difference in this case, though: the tune in question is Creative Commons-licensed. It's possible Crystal Castles thought, incorrectly, that that meant "free." However, the CC license used specifically requires attribution, non-commercial use, and that the derivative work be released under the same license -- that's three strikes against Crystal Castles. The GPL license used in open source software has similar stipulations, and neither license means something isn't protected by copyright law -- the maker of something is still the copyright holder, and uses those rights to define the way in which they want their work used and shared."
Here are a couple songs that have raised a few eyebrows:
Crystal Castles - Insecticon (unreleased, on myspace)
Lo-Bat - My Little Droid Needs A Hand
"[This] track is also featured on CC's record label myspace
http://www.myspace.com/liesrecords
and although it NOW says lo-bat Vs. CC, it wasn’t before the story got found out:
http://discodirt.10pm.org/insection.png"
Crystal Castle released the following statement about this track:
"...songs with Lo-Bat samples were left off the CC album because we didn't have the sample clearance. Many songs were left off the CD because we needed more time to clear the samples. We are hoping to have the songs on a future release (maybe a rarities/demos/remixes compilation) and would love to clear this with Lo-Bat."
Logical enough explaination. However, there is also controversy surrounding their song "Love and Caring", released on 2007's Thrash Thrash Thrash. There are very noticable similarities between this song and Covox's track "Sunday". One "Game Boy musician", Nitro2k01, released spectral charts that compare the two songs, and pointed out comparisons.
Crystal Castles - Love and Caring (Thrash Thrash Thrash, 2007)
Covox - "Sunday" (Demo 1: Handheld Electropop)
What makes this even sketchier is that back in April it was discovered that Crystal Castles stole artwork from a man named Trevor Brown, which features pop artist Madonna with a black eye. It was featured on the cover of the Alice Practice 7", and t-shirts (See above image). Trevor Brown approached them about the use of his artwork, which they found off some anonymous flier, and asked them for payment. Apparently, they strung him along for quite a while without paying the $300, and continued selling the images. Their claim in this case was that they found the artwork and had hoped "the artist would come forward" so they could legitimately pay him, and apparently back in April they were still insistant on making it up to him.
IDK you guys, I just don't know. This all seems pretty shady to me. What do you think? Simple sampling, or plagiarism? Anyone heard any other sort of follow up to these accusations?
source 1, source 2, source 3.
