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)