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The inventor of the "Electric Slide," an iconic dance created in 1976, is fighting back against what he believes are copyright violations and, more important, examples of bad dancing.
Kyle Machulis, an engineer at San Francisco's Linden Lab, said he
"The creator of the Electric Slide claims to hold a copyright on the dance and is DMCAing every single video on YouTube" that references the dance, Machulis said. He's also sent licensing demands to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Machulis added.
Indeed, Richard Silver, who filed the copyright for the Electric Slide in 2004, said on
The 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act governs copyright infringement as well as technology whose purpose is to circumvent measures intended to protect copyrights. Under the DMCA, rights-holders can complain to services like YouTube that content uploaded by users infringes their copyrights.
Silver did not respond to an e-mail sent Friday asking for comment and did not answer several phone calls to his Groton, Conn., home. A representative for the DeGeneres Show declined to comment.
But on the
YouTube has been dealing with a slew of DMCA takedown claims recently.
Some may find it odd that a dance could be copyrightable, of course. But according to Jason Schultz, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, dance moves can definitely be protected under copyright law.
"You can copyright the choreography for dances," said Schultz, "and then enforce the copyright against anyone who publicly performs the dance."
Does that mean that everyone who giggles their way through the Electric Slide with the wedding videographer shooting away is violating copyright? No, but the videographer could be at risk. But Schultz said he believes Silver's claims against Machulis and others who have posted videos on YouTube may be questionable.
"Someone who performs it noncommercially or adds their own artistic flair to the dance has a pretty good fair-use argument that their performance is noninfringing," Schultz said.
Because there are only about 20 seconds of actual footage of people doing the Electric Slide out of Machulis' nearly five-minute video, Silver's claim may be on shaky ground, Schultz said.
"Here, it's such a small piece of the video, and such a small piece of the dance (that) I think if (Silver brought) a copyright lawsuit, he would lose," he said.
Joe Pesci, Electric Slide master
Machulis, who has reposted his video on another online site, said he is considering a counterclaim on the theory that Silver's copyright applies only to a videotape of his original tutorial of the dance. But Schultz said the format isn't a concern in this case.
A blogger named Rob Lathan also recently said he got a DMCA takedown notice from YouTube.
Lathan had posted a video of himself dancing the Electric Slide on stilts on NBC's Today Show. Now,
"I'm gonna fight him with everything I've got," he wrote. "And you know what that is, right? My trusty pair of shiny red stilts."
It appears Silver has for several years aggressively defended his copyright on the dance. In 2004, Silver apparently wrote an e-mail to Donna Woolard, an associate professor of exercise science at North Carolina's Campbell University, demanding she remove a video of the dance from a Web site. He complained the dance wasn't being done correctly on the video, and Woolard took down the video.
Silver wrote,
Interestingly, he also complained that actors in those movies also didn't do the dance right. In fact, of several movies mentioned, surprisingly, Silver said only Joe Pesci, best known for his Oscar-winning role in the gangster classic Goodfellas, performed the dance correctly in the decidedly lesser-known film, The Super.
"I realize that this incorrect version of my choreography has been around for some 27 years," Silver wrote, "and it seems pointless to try and correct it at this time but because of the legal ramifications, my lawyers have suggested that I take this approach."
So does doing the Electric Slide badly protect you from charges of copyright violation? To Schultz, an incorrect version of the dance may still be covered under copyright law as a derivative of the original, but it depends on the context. In the case of Machulis' video, the missteps of the dance probably mean a loss of Silver's rights.
"Slight variations (of the original) are arguably derivative," said Schultz, "but something else, like doing (a dance) out of sequence, you're probably not even getting close to his copyright."
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silly waste of litigation... If he's so upset about his dance being
done wrong, maybe he should start producing a dance video
showing people how to do the electric slide properly. Then maybe
he'd stop listening to lawyers and filing goofy lawsuits.
Next you'll have IBM suing everyone who wears a white shirt.
President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001.
Per EFF.ORG "On October 28, 2000 the controversial Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) took full effect, criminalizing the
act of circumvention of a technological protection system put in
place by a copyright holder -- even if one has a fair use right to
access that information.
Gee, care to guess who was president in 2000?
One of the main principles of western civilization is to provide an even playing field for every one. The DMCA is about giving the "800 lb gorilla" a machine gun to help him while he gets "anything he wants".
The DMCA and idiots: it's a dangerous combination!
Electric Slide? WHO CARES!
Oh the humanity!1
What is life about anymore anyways?
much passion to copyright a dance no one knows the correct
moves? Hold on, there's a correct way to do that dance? I
wouldn't know, I usually have a pretty good buzz on by the time
that song plays or looking for a restroom like every other guy
who doesn't want to get dragged onto the dance floor by there
girlfriend or wife.
Which brings up a question which came first the song or the
dance? If the song came first did he pay the copyright holder any
royalties for inspiring him to put a dance? I hope he paid the
song's copyright holder...
The only people who will be happy will be the lawyers and any
male who now has a good excuse not to get dragged on the
dance floor, "sorry honey, they're video tapping I don't want to
get sued if this ends up on the web"
Dancing goes back to the Stone Age. Since fellow man walked
upright.
I'm waiting for the day when God (or the God's) come down and
lecture us about what's really important in life.
A message to Silver, "Take a little trip to the middle east and get a
REALITY CHECK ON LIFE, BUDDY".
I think it's totally rediculous. I really can't say enough about it to
truly point out how stupid this is.
He has not made people happy doing this but made people distrust the entertainment industry as a whole. When does suing people cause they are happy the human way.
U.S.C. Section 106(2).
Richard Silver is interested in protecting his ownership of what some of you call a "stupid dance" while it is worth in access of a million dollars. Some people say he copied from the "Hustle". Did he or was the Hustle copied from the Electric Slide? How much did Bally Fitness pay for movements of the Electric Slide that became know as the Cha-Cha Slide? Where the movements of the Cha-Cha Slide as sold by DJ Casper original or did he copy them from the Electric Slide in 1995? How much has DJ Casper made off of the Cha-Cha Slide? It is clearly the Electric Slide with did words and commands. How much have other made off of other renditions of Ric Silver's genious?
Do I really believe that all of you that dislike the song, the dance, and Ric Silver's attempts to protect it, would really not come forward to claim and protect your rights if you knew that those rights where worth over a million dollar? Let's be honest!
LAW. All Copyright requires is a minimal amount of creativity/
independent creation. If this guy thought of the dance
independently, even if it were identical to somebody else's, he
would still be entitled to a copyright. He might not be able to
enforce it, as he would have to prove an infinger copied HIS dance
and not somebody else's, but he'd still be entitled to copyright.
If a record company puts even the most basic copy protection on something, that automatically trumps our "Fair Use" right to back up our store brought CDs, or even to copy them on to our ipods.
This is capitalism gone made.
So, know what you're talking about before you accuse the DMCA of being the root of all your imagined copyright ills.
So, don't blame the DMCA for all the copyright ills you imagine.
Let's just sue everyone who ever danced or tried to dance, then sue them for the music they dared to listen to while dancing. Keep it up all you money grubbing lawyers/leaches, eventually the masses will just tell you all to go to hell. Right now I'm thinking about a blues session I thoroughly enjoyed at Joe's Generic Bar the last time I was in Austin. I'm sure if the lawyers thought long and hard they could find a way to sue me for replaying that memory in my head. This has gotten way out of hand. Sleazy lawyers inept judges, start applying some common sense for God's sake.
- Somebody Alert Chubby Checker!
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by mstrhypno
February 4, 2007 2:17 PM PST
- If THIS guy's suits pass muster, then Chubby Checker's MANY versions of The Twist and The Peppermint Twist are now also fair game!
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Reply to this comment
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- Chubby Checker wasn't the first twister
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by rodparkes
February 11, 2007 6:55 PM PST
- Although Chubby Checker undoubtedly popularised the twist, he didn't originate it. The first twist record was put out by Hank Ballard in 1958, a year before Checker covered it.
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See all 75 Comments >>However, I thought that there was a statute of limitations on FILING for infringement...! I know that I ran into that when someone published material of MINE a few years ago...
And tewnty-sever YEARS seems a little LONG for a statute of limitations on anything in civil court... at ALL!