Trivia question: Which British pop idol bragged that his band was "more popular than Jesus?"
If you answered John Lennon, you're right, but you're showing your age. Liam Gallagher of Oasis said it too, adding that his group was going to be "bigger than the Beatles." When you add that to the fact that Oasis recorded covers of "Helter Skelter" and "I Am the Walrus," played a rooftop concert, and christened one of its albums after an obscure George Harrison LP, we're talking cultural appropriation as a way of life. Which makes the recent effort by the band's management to crack down on use of copyrighted materials on unofficial Oasis Web sites slightly ironic - and the fans aren't taking it lying down.
In a strategy mirrored by online Star Trek devotees in a dispute with Paramount/Viacom, Oasis fans announced on 10 May an alliance to defend their sites in the face of threatened legal action, Oasis Webmasters for Internet Freedom. The Trek alliance - the Online Freedom Federation - was announced Tuesday.
Jack Martin of OWIF says that more than 140 webmasters are involved in the campaign to convince Ignition Management that Oasis fans should be allowed to use images and sound files on their sites. "We're all after the same thing. We all want to show how much we love Oasis and their music," Martin told Wired News. Martin says the fans were motivated by the fact that the band's official homepage is "stale ... one big press release" that is rarely updated.
Even a marketing staffer from another record label - Capitol - has jumped into the fray on the OWIF site, saying, "Kudos to you and your hard work trying to fight this uphill battle.... You and the other webmasters are one of the best marketing tools Sony has.... Sony, the management company, and the band are all morons for pursuing this case."
The OWIF was formed after the creators of unofficial Oasis sites received an email on 5 May from Sarah Frederiksen, the webmaster of the band's official site. The email says that "webmasters are in danger of legal action if copyrighted material is not removed from their sites. Internet service providers housing illegal material will be asked to terminate accounts or face action themselves." The letter defines forbidden material as "Oasis sound and video files, photographs, and lyrics ... press interviews, television appearances, unauthorized recordings of live performances, etc." The email claims that the impetus for the crackdown was a directive from Sony, the parent company of Oasis' US label, Epic.
Lisa Gephardt, director of Sony media relations, disputed Frederiksen's explanation for the letter, telling Wired News that Sony is "so not involved in this. Nothing is going on from Sony's perspective. This is between the band's management and the fans."
In a statement dated 12 May, Ignition Management spokesman Johnny Hopkins admitted that the letter originated without input from Sony, and said that "we have written to the fan pages in order to prevent any possibility of a dispute happening." Martin, however, claims that he has never gotten a response from Ignition, and was only able to get hold of Hopkins' statement when a reporter sent it to him. "They don't seem to be forthcoming with the fans. They talk to the media."
On the Trek front, the launch of the Online Freedom Federation is just the latest episode in the saga of Paramount/Viacom's battle with unauthorized sites - a battle that heated up in December, says OFF chairman Luca Sambucci, when Paramount launched Continuum, the official Trek outpost on MSN. "When Continuum wasn't showing any profit, Paramount/Viacom decided to kill the competition."
The OFF's objectives, spokesman Jerry Blackmon explains, are to get Paramount/Viacom to "allow us to use copyrighted materials - within certain restrictions - and stay off our backs." Restrictions acceptable to the OFF, says Blackmon, would include prohibiting webmasters from using Trek sites for profit or advertisement, and requiring proper credit for all copyrighted materials.
Sambucci stresses that his multilingual alliance - which already has members in Canada, Malaysia, Australia, and the British Isles - is searching for a middle ground. In December, Sambucci says, his "anti-Viacom" campaign triggered a deluge of email from thousands of angry fans. "Now," says Sambucci, "we are trying to find an agreement with Viacom, rather than a fight."
