Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Creamtastic Who Owns the Rights to All Things Metal?
Posted by D. Patrick Rodgers on Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 12:53 PM
Metal fans around the globe are no doubt familiar with the Encyclopaedia Metallum, which allegedly lists every existing metal band of note (and a few that are utterly non-noteworthy) in the world. Browsing through names like Moonlord, Total Fucking Destruction, Buttocks and my all-time favorite Queef Huffer certainly provides endless hours of entertainment.
But now that McSweeney’s is publishing All Known Metal Bands, a printed archive containing material virtually identical to Encyclopedia Metallum, bloggers like Invisible Oranges are crying plagiarism. Can you copyright an archive? It is, after all, just listed material that anyone can access given time, an Internet connection and the lack of any semblance of a social life. Is this just a case of Encyclopedia Metallum snoozing on the print tip and therefore losing to McSweeney’s? Will nerdy archivists and bloggers ever win against soulless, towering corporations?
Comments (4)
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I don't think you could call McSweeney's a soulless, towering corporation. Their commitment to the finer points of the written word and there various outreach programs indicate at least a little bit of soul. Plus they regularly publish Dan Liebert, Verbal Cartoonist. And I quote:
"Grandma's Love.
I remember how my grandma would pretend not to see when I'd sneak a taste of cookie dough or raw chicken, and whenever we had a contest to see who could pee the farthest, she always let me win. Grandma had so much love to give to so many people that it seemed kind of worthless and cheap."
Towering genius, yes. Soulless Corporation? Probably not.
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If a telephone book is copyrightable (and, if I'm not mistaken, it is), then I would suppose that a metal band archive is copyrightable.
P.S. Total Fucking Destruction totally fucking rules.
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