JZ on Jay-Z, Copyright, and The White Album

Cease and desist letters are flying after yesterday's online protest, Grey Tuesday.  The cyber-movement was organized to show support for The Grey Album, a creation by LA's DJ Danger Mouse.  The album mixes pieces of The Beatles' "The White Album," and layers them over "The Black Album," made by rapper Jay-Z.  And of course, the issue is copyright.  As Prof. Jonathan Zittrain explains in an article in The New York Times, "As a matter of pure legal doctrine, the Grey Tuesday protest is breaking the law, end of story."  But the problem perhaps lies in the structure of existing copyright laws: as Zittrain explains, "There's no place to plug such an important cultural sea change into the current legal regime."  Read The New York Times story.

Photo courtesy of DJ Dangermouse/Justin Hampton