Non-Profit Indie Label Accuses Crystal Castles of Plagiarism
Yikes – buzz in the 8-Bit blogosphere is that Crystal Castles has been ripping off several musicians and artists on their way to the top, most notably on the unreleased song “Intersection”. The track has been on their Myspace for years and is frequently performed live. However, the Crystal Castles seems to have lifted a large part of "Intersection" from another 8-Bit artist named Lo-bat.
Lo-bat’s work was released under Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that allows artists to legally upload and share their art, so long as proper credit is given. In other words, if Crystal Castles wanted to use Lo-Bat's music, the work would have to be attributed. According to a screen shot from last month (view here), it wasn’t. The work also has to be non-commercial and distributed under Creative Commons licensing, which Crystal Castles’ work was not. 8bitpeoples, the label that released Lo-bat’s music, has a statement condemning Crystal Castles’ action here.
The band also copied artwork from an artist, Trevor Brown. Crystal Castles say they found the art, and added the attribution when he came forward. Well, yes, but the artist has asked the group to either stop using his art or compensate him. No luck so far. You can read about his struggles here.
Really, really uncool stuff. Lots of bands release things under Creative Commons, and it’s very wrong for Crystal Castles to take advantage of that. For a more in-depth look at what Crystal Castles has done, visit here. You can also hear “Intersection” and the song it ripped off there – I figure we shouldn’t post mp3s of Crystal Castles’ until they clear this mess up. To read up on Creative Commons licensing, visit the Creative Commons website.
Crystal Castles MySpace Page
(April Wright)
Labels: Crystal Castles, Plagiarism, Scandal
posted by MPLSFR at 8:09 AM
7 Comments:
A what point does this become a pattern of infringment?
I don't like Crystal Castles but you need to get your facts straight.
Insecticon is an unreleased demo song from 2004, never meant for release, uploaded onto myspace by one of their tiny labels who didn't know it was meant to be unreleased. It has never been on the offical Crystal Castles page. It's on myspace.com/liesrecords
The band also stopped selling the Trevor Brown shirt as soon as Brown asked them to stop.
Well, when CC was contacted directly, they put the attribution up on that myspace page, meaning that they had some control over the content. Should they not be held responsible for a web page that they are in control of?
Secondly, Trevor Brown says the band continued to use his art, even releasing a "banned cover" version of the album, for two years after he asked them to stop. So, I guess I don't know where you got the idea that they stopped selling them. It's all outlined in Brown's blog post.
Also, John Darnielle weighs in at http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/2008/04/why_are_people_grudgeful.html
I agree with him; marvelous album, but this is pretty cut and dry.
actually get your facts straight.brown is a liar.the "banned cover version" was never sold.he assumes it was sold cause a picture was posted on the labels site to show fans what the cover would of looked like.but it was NEVER sold.hence the reason "banned cover" was plastered over it.trust me.i wanted to buy a copy but i couldnt cause it didnt even reach production
sock puppet alert : 'gameboygirl' and other anonymous..people only have to click the links on the article above and see your full of shit.. get a real job sock puppet
now there' about 5 artists and 6 songs stolen, another one today shows up, see 8bitcollective.com forum
give it up crystal crasshole drones
Anyway you look at it...despite whatever Crystal Castles is saying, they stole artwork then came up with excuses and ways around them getting in trouble.
They stole from Trevor Brown until he came forward. It's still stealing.
The Lo-Bat track they didn't attribute until there were complaints.
When did it become okay to steal until they come forward?
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