Sliding into Copyright Chaos? -- Great Dance Weblog

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February 08, 2007

Sliding into Copyright Chaos?

As more dance videos are uploaded to the web - especially to sites such as YouTube, will more choreographers seek copyright protection for their dances? And, once obtaining copyrights for their work, will rights holders proceed to scourer video sharing sites in search of those infringing on their intellectual property rights? And will we end-up with many more lawsuits in the dance world?

The answer is a definitive yes. Read "'Electric Slide' on Slippery DMCA Slope" on Cnet News. Richard Silver filed a copyright in 2004 for the "Electric Slide" dance. Silver is now issuing takedown orders to anybody who is uploading video that supposedly infringes on his copyright - he considers a video showing a few seconds of the Electric Slide dance at a wedding party a violation of his copyright.

Here's the Electric Slide website - it is annoying beyond belief. Click here to see a letter sent by Silver seeking the removal of online videos that include his dance.

And here are two bloggers who responded to Silver's takedown orders - I recommend reading each post and the comments:

- "The Electric Slide vs. Lathan" on Roblathan.com

- "Well, I guess I won't be doing the electric slide any time soon" on qDot's blog.

The Dance Community Should Address These Important Issues

I believe that the initial questions I pose in my opening paragraph should start to be addressed by the dance community this year so that the "dance industry" does not get blindsided like the music industry was five years ago. By "dance industry" I'm referring to anybody and everybody whose livelihood and business is tied to dance.

The big music labels and recording artists got caught flat-footed (I guess the dance world wouldn't want that :-)!) by Napster and rampant unauthorized copying and distribution of digital music. By the time that the music industry responded, the game was over, CD sales plummeted and they had to play catch-up with the Internet to figure out how they would make money from online distribution.

While we'll never know exactly what would have happened if the big players in the music business took a more proactive role early on in terms of figuring out how music ought to be distributed and sold online, and exploring ways to protect the intellectual property interests of artists, one thing is fairly certain, they would have at least had a bigger say and influence over what did happen.

Today, the dance industry stands at the same precipice the music industry did five years ago: dancers, choreographers and other performing artists are going to increasingly have difficulty stopping people from shooting videos of their work. More and more people have small mobile phones that record video. And unless presenters and dance companies intend to implement draconian measures - such as full-body searches for consumer electronic equipment - when patrons walk into a theater, it will become more and more difficult to stop illegal video taping of dance performances. (Even museums can't stop visitors from taking snapshots with camera phones in broad daylight). Plus, anybody can perform any dance piece, make a video and upload it to the Internet.

And these illegal videos are going to end-up in one place: YouTube. The increased availability of unauthorized video will inevitably lead more dance creators to seek copyright protection for their work and this, in turn, will lead to many more legal confrontations and lawsuits.

A Call to Action

The dance industry still has a small-time frame in which action can be taken. I strongly recommend that the dance community immediately starts a dialogue about how to protect the creative work of choreographers and dancers.

In addition, it is important to consider a number of different approaches to licensing creative work whether it is for commercial or non-commercial purposes. And this should all be done in the context of figuring out how choreographers, dancers and dance companies can not only control the use of their work, but also begin to benefit financially from online distribution.

And here is the big silver lining. Considering different copyright and licensing approaches is not just about preventing unauthorized use of one's dances, it is also about helping choreographers, dancers and dance companies create significant new revenue streams for their creative output.

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Posted by Doug Fox on February 8, 2007 06:35 AM

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Reader Comments

The fight is going to be a tough one because of the USA's rather good Title 17 Section 107 law with regard to fair use.

Also, protecting particular movement is going to be a tough one especially when trying to persuade the legal system that a 15 year old in Delware is causing financial harm to Merce Cunningham (if only 15 year olds in Deleware wanted to emulate Merce Cunningham ;o)

The 'Electric Slide' guy is almost certainly high on something and personally I cannot believe they granted him a copyright on that dance and the bloggers have responded in kind by mocking his stance.

There is a revenue stream in selling video online of professional work and that's where dance companies, choreographers and dancers should focus what little money and energy they have.

They should leave the litigation to the RIAA and let them absorb the ridicule and mocking they richly deserve.

This is a good piece!

Posted by: Michelle at February 8, 2007 12:09 PM

Well, I think we all knew it was only a matter of time until someone like Silver came along. I can see his issue with the Ellen Degeneris show. The producers are, I assume, making loads of money off of his creative work product (seemingly without even acknowledging that he was the creator, I think?), so I can see him getting angry about that. But the YouTube complaint seems so ridiculous since (as of now at least) no one is making money off of anything that's derivative of or in some way involves his choreography... which all may change when YouTube starts allowing people to buy and sell on the site. I know nothing about copyright law, but for now, I don't understand whose profits he's trying to sue for?

As to how to protect dance artists in general, I think it is so complicated because YouTube and the internet in general provide such great tools for exposing people to dance and hopefully piquing their interests in it enough to make them want to see a live performance. If artists are going to be anal about copyright, how are they going to get the necessary exposure to a wider audience? Another dance blogger was dismayed after she'd enrolled in a course involving collaborative arts and none of the students seemed to have heard of one of the artists studied: Balanchine (whose estate is notoriously anal about his work). But then if artists begin giving out their work for free, who's going to want to pay to see it? Other arts industries are having similar problems -- try getting a job in publishing right now... I feel like soon the term 'artist' is going to mean someone who works for free...

So, I ended up saying nothing in my comment! I think we need to study copyright law and come up with some ideas.

Posted by: Swan Lake Samba Girl at February 8, 2007 01:40 PM

Here is Stanford U.'s fairly detailed overview of the "fair use" doctrine. They give some cases where fair use has been litigated, and I think there are some notable ones where the work used was NOT considered fair use (such as the tape of the Reginald Denny beating used on a news show). All in all, looks VERY confusing, which is not surprising given the litigiousness of this country...

Also, a lot of the issue seems to revolve around whether the use is considered commercial or educational. So, what is YouTube -- does that exist primarily for educational or commercial purposes? What about blog? Does the question of whether or not a blog is "commercial" depend on whether the author(s) of the blog advertise on it? What if they don't accept advertisers but are interested in getting a book deal out of their blog... I mean, I think it's too early with a lot of these newish uses of the internet to answer these questions adequately. Anyway, here is the Stanford overview:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

Posted by: Swan Lake Samba Girl at February 9, 2007 02:36 PM

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Since 2005, Doug Fox's blog has covered the intersection of dance and the Internet. A primary focus is to help dancers and dance companies use the Internet and their dance videos for marketing, educational, creative and revenue-generation purposes.

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