If you all remember from a previous post, Terry Urban’s lastest mixtape, Southerngold, was scheduled to be released on the Net today. The album was to consist of Terry’s favorite dirty south rappers going in on remixed Santigold beats. Well, as Terry was uploading the mix to be released to the world last night, he received a cease and desist notice from the lawyers at Santigold’s label, Downtown Records.
This is a very sad day in hip hop, people. Do Downtown’s lawyers have the right to do this? Yes, they do. Why are they doing it? Who fucking knows. If someone was putting together a KevinNottingham.com mixtape out to the masses, I’d look it as free publicity. I guess Downtown Records sees it otherwise.
Head on over to the PressPlayShow and read up on the full details and come back over here and let us know what you think about the situtation. As to what Terry’s next move is, he’s currently waiting to hear back from his lawyers before he decides his next step. I gues it’ll be a while before we get to hear this mix.
Somebody actually created a petition for this online also. Not sure if it’ll help or not, but go over there and sign it if you want this mix to be heard:
http://www.petitiononline.com/DOWNTOWN/petition.html
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Petition? Damn they really want this to happen. lol
Who’s loss is it in the long run? Probably Santi’s people..
that sucks
The petition came from a fan, btw, not Terry’s camp.
I would bet that there is probably a lot of sampling on that mixtape that was not cleared. The record company who an artist is signed to runs a huge risk if they release a mixtape with unauthorized sampling. I’ve seen samples delay album releases for months and sometimes years. With mixtapes it’s the same thing.
Particularly with a mixtape where there is 0 money to be made, and potentially a huge lawsuit for copyright infringement, record companies and artists will balk if they think there will be a lawsuit. If there was a cease and desist order, that means that the record company or artist who owns the original rights to the songs being sampled on the mixtape, or maybe even one or two of the tracks on the mixtape is already aware of the mixtape, a court has found that it violates their copyright, and made an order to prevent the mixtape from being distributed.
Bottom line: If i make something, and i’m not gonna get paid or did not authorize you, you can’t use it for a commercial purpose — in this case, a mixtape.
Good looks Pedro!
it’s still stupid of Santi’s people regardless if they gave this the OK or not.
All the tapes Mick and Terry do – they do nothing but offer huge promo for everyone involved. Artists, producers, DJs, anyone being sampled. Also opens fans up to different genres.
It’s especially ridiculous since Terry isn’t seeing any profit from it. and it’s even more ridiculous that Santi’s people wouldn’t appreciate some further promo.
Agree with everyone here. This is FREE promotion. And Terry Urban is known in all hip-hop comunity, so it’s not a free promotion, it’s a HUGE FREE PROMOTION.
First the Sample Sets, then the Dangermouse episode, now this…
This is why this music industry is such a crap and it’s decadent… They don’t know how to use the internet. A lot of people that know how to use their power, but don’t know how to use their brain.
this santigold media player is fully authorized — grab it, yall!
http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/rwBt3S9iFPCiLbsG
ok wait I’m confused..I thought that you don’t have to clear samples if you are not going to profit from the song. Isn’t that the case with Blu’s latest mixtape “herfavoritecolor”? Do all these rappers that release free mixtapes over other peoples beats have to get everything cleared? I’m about to start working with ArtOfficial on their first mixtape..and an idea we had is to listen to beats and any song in general that we like..whether its a tribe called quest song or a jimi hendrix song and see if the band can play their own version of it and have our MCs spit some verses over them…we thought that we don’t have to clear anything since we are releasing this for free…what are we legally allowed to do? i dont want to get a fucking lawsuit from the jimi hendrix estate lol
From what I understand, you have the possibility to be sued anytime you use a copyrighted work without the owners permission. Yes, everyone does it all the time and it doesn’t stop most people, but if I own the rights to “My Song” I can say that I don’t want anyone ever to sample my song period, regardless of how much money they’re willing to send my way. It’s my right as the copyright owner.
Now for projects you are not selling or making any money off of, they may not get much money from suing you and may not think it’ll be worth the trouble, but they could send a cease and desist notice, such as this case.
This may or may not be correct, but it’s the way I see it.
kev i kno u busy man ( and i kno ya’ll prolly working behind da scenes already on this but da same thing you doing with ariel’s section, mayb sumthin with pedro discussin legality issues in the music…i mean its a big deal he even on here droppin sum knowledge cause that alone is a consultation fee and we gittin dis info for free…really appreciate that.
Yup, it’s something we definitely working on man.
damn.
i was truly lookin’ forward to this.
thank you sir
Hey, the tape actually dropped. I just downloaded on NahRight.