This entry was posted on
Monday, January 16th, 2006 at
8:44 am and is filed
under Flash Music Video, Games and Objects.
Pandora: The creeping Blunticisation of Britain continues, and woe betide anybody who tries to stand in its way. The powers behind James Blunt’s ubiquitous ditty, “You’re Beautiful”, have moved to stop a small web company from running a parody of the song at www.eclectech.co.uk. “It was a reaction to the Emperor’s New Clothes thing,” its writer, Tim Gillespie, tells me. Bucks Music Group has written to Gillespie, explaining: “It has come to our attention that… you have made an unauthorised parodied adaptation of ‘You’re Beautiful’ entitled ‘You’re Gullible’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Unauthorised Adaptation’)…” Unless the website desists forthwith, the music publisher will be left “with no alternative but to consider seeking a court order”. The music has been removed from the site, but fans can still throw tomatoes at Blunt’s cartoon image, above right, and read Gillespie’s spoof lyrics. But there is evidence that Blunt, left, is complicit in breaching his own copyright. On his official website, weeks before the spoof was removed, his messageboard administrator wrote: “James was throwing tomatoes at himself on that site yesterday.” Naughty boy.
You can read the relevant entry here on the James Blunt messageboard.
What’s left of the animation can been seen here.
By Unity January 16, 2006 - 9:57 am
Hang on a second, here.If I remember my Copyright, Design and Trademarks Act and my Berne convention correctly, the right to parody and satirise without permission of the copyright owner is protected within copyright law.
By Wolf Solent January 16, 2006 - 10:24 am
Some of the comments on the James Blunt site are priceless, though – I do like the ones who talk about how jealous Eclectech must be of lovely talented James. Yes. That’ll be it. Jealous. Of JAMES ‘rhyming slang’ BLUNT.
By Annie - London Underground Blog January 17, 2006 - 9:35 am
Perhaps people on the message board ought to have said that “James Blunt was playing with himself yesterday”