Babble: Glee! is ripping off covers.

So I wanted to do a post on Coursera today. No really! I'm not lying! But then yesterday I stumbled further onto a story that I think merits addressing.

And that is the story of:

I can't call myself an absolutely devoted fan, but there is a part of me that absolutely loves Glee. I blame it on the theatre geek in me that never received the exposure necessary to turn into a snob. In any event, it's a show I can enjoy despite the moments that it tries to preach at me or throw themed episodes at me that make me shudder. It's a show that can inspire me. It's a show that takes risks and addresses issues that are common in life and high school, but not necessarily what I would call common on television.

And it's a show whose creators seem to be sneaky and worth frowning upon.

I often find myself marvelling at the way a song would be performed by Glee. Sometimes the approach is so contrary to its original rendition and other times it's absolutely spot on and that makes it just as spectacular.

Here's the problem: It would appear that some of the covers were nabbed from other people - initially without the artists knowing and then without really acting as if it's all that much of a big deal seeing as due to [insert legal copyright explanation here] Fox can get away with it. In at least one case, the group they nabbed the cover from got credit but it seemed that it was also in bad taste. From what I've read the potential agreement between the show creators and Divisi fell through and the song got used anyway.

Mash-up artist DJ Earthworm also seems to have fallen prey to Glee without them giving him anything more than a big ol' raspberry if even that much.

Then there was Greg Laswell's rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls just wanna have fun". The producers didn't even bother giving any kind of nod in his case. His response does kinda show the heart of the matter:


"Of the Glee version, I think they have enough talent over there that they shouldn't need to go rummaging through other artists' work. Public acknowledgement of their note-for-note rendition would have gone a long way."






The way I (and probably quite a few other people) became aware of this whole thing was when Jonathan Coulton's cover of 'Baby got back' was used in a recent episode. With his, it was surprisingly blatant, even including lines that he had put in himself.

So why is Coulton's case different? I can't say that it is. But the mistake Fox made with Coulton is that they didn't bank on the fact that he has a serious geek following. He also has a lot of colleagues who happen to be geeks and who also have rather large geek followings. Add this little thing called Twitter and hmm....

I think all of this was utterly unnecessary on Fox's part. I don't think anything will really come from it legally, but there is going to be a backlash. And as much as I love Glee, I hope that backlash will be substantial. 

Spitting Kitty left the following comment on Glee's youtube vid of Baby got back (the vid I embedded):  I have a great suggestion for an episode of Glee! The New Directions do this incredible cover of a song, let's say Boyz in the Hood, and the Warblers steal their version for sectionals. The New Directions go to the judges to complain, and are told, "too bad, so sad, it wasn't your song to begin with!"

I think that's it in a nutshell. We can play the 'Whose song is it anyway?' and we can point out what this copyright means and that copyright means and the idea of borrowing hardly is a new concept regardless whether it's a song, a book, a movie, a piece of technology, etc. etc. But you have to admit no amount of legalese will make this water any less murky or stink any less foul. 

So here's a thought: Why not just give credit where it is due? 

Can you imagine how much lift these artists could have had if they just got a nod? I mean think about how much attention these artists are receiving now and how many slushies the Fox peeps have to wipe off their faces in the process. What if they had gone a different route? How about promoting these artists just as Glee is promoting the next generation of singers, dancers and musicians in the show itself? Image the good press Glee would have received.

So what stopped them? That's the question that's been running through my mind. If giving credit would have been so painless, then why not just give it where it is due and come out the hero for it?

“If this were an episode of Glee I would win." - Jonathan Coulton


Further info:
Wired: Jonathan Coulton Explains How Glee Ripped Off His Cover Song — And Why He’s Not Alone
The Daily Dot: Serial song theft on "Glee"? Jonathan Coulton wasn't the first