Due to my inability to fund a battle against Ascap, badave.com's parody and video parody section will be removed later tonight and into tomorrow, I will replace all amiright.com recording links that link to badave to other locations of the songs that are linked to, and the contest section will be saved.  I will post in full the later tonight on my site why this is happening, and what you can do to help me fight it. . .

Oh man 

Have you talked to anyone on some of the other sites like Mad Music Archive, The FuMP, Soundclick, or even amiright?

Here's how I feel about ASCAP:

this is ridiculous. Why should the original artists make money off of your site when you're not? And it isn't exactly their music being used as backing tracks anyway, right? Too bad you can't send a "cease and desist harassing me and learn the law" letter right back at them.

Yeah, I've started circling the information to all the other sites so they know about it too.

Ethan--My thoughts and attempt to reason with her are exactly what you just expressed, I just wish I had the ability to fight them. . .but I don't, and it's unlikely any amount of donations could help this, which is why I didn't post for those, I just can't believe the ignorance on the part of ASCAP in this.

If you try to enforce the law at least know the law you're trying to enforce.... F*cking dumbasses!!! (This pisses me off to no end, because Badave was actually one of my most visited web sites)

I reviewed the whole license thing they were asking me to agree to, it turns out the amount my site would have to pay if I agreed would be $340 (and inevitably whatever BMI ends up wanting, which is usually considerably less than ASCAP)  That said, it's still way outside of what I can afford doing my work as completely non-profit.  $340 is the base minimum, my site's statistics would put the total at $79, and the site's revenue would put it at $0, the fee is based on the highest of the three, obviously the base minimum is what would apply. . .that's a heck of a lot less than the thousands I'd spend in court, but at this time I have absolutely no interest in doing this, I still want to replace my computer before it craps again, I still think it's bull shtick that this is going on, and I don't think that I could generate enough revenue to pay "license fees"  Any ideas anyone, if not don't worry--I'm in no rush on this, I'm working on shoring up my financial situation anyway--but badave's current state of doom and gloom is not necessarily permanent.

I reviewed the whole license thing they were asking me to agree to, it turns out the amount my site would have to pay if I agreed would be $340 (and inevitably whatever BMI ends up wanting, which is usually considerably less than ASCAP)  That said, it's still way outside of what I can afford doing my work as completely non-profit.  $340 is the base minimum, my site's statistics would put the total at $79, and the site's revenue would put it at $0, the fee is based on the highest of the three, obviously the base minimum is what would apply. . .that's a heck of a lot less than the thousands I'd spend in court, but at this time I have absolutely no interest in doing this, I still want to replace my computer before it craps again, I still think it's bull shtick that this is going on, and I don't think that I could generate enough revenue to pay "license fees"  Any ideas anyone, if not don't worry--I'm in no rush on this, I'm working on shoring up my financial situation anyway--but badave's current state of doom and gloom is not necessarily permanent.


Is there a website you can host recordings on for the time being that isn't exactly owned by you but a sub site that anybody can use such as Geosites or something like that?

Is there a website you can host recordings on for the time being that isn't exactly owned by you but a sub site that anybody can use such as Geosites or something like that?


Matthias, Geocities and similar sites are still your own site (and offer little to no scripting capabilities for protecting my scripts and such), that wouldn't avoid the issue at hand. . .Soundclick is the only option at the moment as long as they are allowing parodies, who knows whether or not they have dealt with ASCAP or not. . .that is for current hosting or whatever.

All I can say is:  What the fudgeing hell? :(

Whatever happened to fair use????

Dave, I am so sorry that this comes on the heels of your tech difficulties. All that time and work...down the proverbial drain.  :\'(

Have you talked to anyone on some of the other sites like Mad Music Archive, The FuMP, Soundclick, or even amiright?

Here's how I feel about ASCAP:




I've never heard of them before now. But now that I have I feel the same way.

On the bright side, imagine his bandwidth bills if he'd been hosting content when the Slashdot effect kicked in.

Congrats, Dave - you've made the geek bigtime, and your plight is being noticed.

On the bright side, imagine his bandwidth bills if he'd been hosting content when the Slashdot effect kicked in.

Congrats, Dave - you've made the geek bigtime, and your plight is being noticed.


Yeah, and believe it or not, I do take a small amount of pride in that, it's something to smile about in the whole thing anyway, I'm worried about the implications this has on other parody acts, not to mention the big boys like Garageband, Soundclick, Youtube and such--they don't pay licensing fees, and I don't think they would to keep parodies listed, we may become outcasts outside of The Mad Music Archive and lyric based sites

Dave- I'm glad that you said something. 

Yeah, and believe it or not, I do take a small amount of pride in that, it's something to smile about in the whole thing anyway, I'm worried about the implications this has on other parody acts, not to mention the big boys like Garageband, Soundclick, Youtube and such--they don't pay licensing fees, and I don't think they would to keep parodies listed, we may become outcasts outside of The Mad Music Archive and lyric based sites


Aren't we all?  I am not a lawyer, but I think you're essentially right in that the 2 Live Crew case pretty much settled the issue back in the day.  But whether or not that's still the case is anyone's guess.  Hence the calls for "find legal representation".  Hopefully, the PR you got today will encourage suitable representation to find you.

If they went after your site, you think they're gonna start trying to hit other places that regularly post parodies like The FuMP and Am I Right?

I've got a parody of Creep coming (an ASCAP song by Radiohead) as well

The FUMP says they are prepared to deal with ASCAP if they come along (talked to Tom via email) and they are not going to stop accepting parodies, Mad Music Archive pays royalties so they are safe.

AmIRight doesn't have an embedded player so they should also be fine.


Soundclick and Garageband on the other hand, may eventually cave--I don't think they'll pay for a license even though they might be able to afford it, I believe both MySpace and YouTube probably already do. . .

"I Spoofed A Song, And They Banned It"

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/celebrity-pictures-weird-al-yankovic-parody-popular.jpg

Coming Monday!

"I Spoofed A Song, And They Banned It"

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/celebrity-pictures-weird-al-yankovic-parody-popular.jpg


That's a great picture

That's a serious bummer, Dave... have to admit, I had thought that parody was covered by "fair use" over there (in a far more lenient way than it is on this side of the pond).

Best of luck.

That's a serious bummer, Dave... have to admit, I had thought that parody was covered by "fair use" over there (in a far more lenient way than it is on this side of the pond).

Best of luck.


It supposed to be, thank you for your support. . .I am in conversation via email with ASCAP about this on a daily basis, we are trying to understand where each other is coming from, I am hopeful something can be worked out.

You seem to be getting some notice....

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/15/1442225&art_pos=1

http://www.sandiegoradionews.com/0100.htm

http://www.wickedtickle.com/index.php?topic=10655.msg39458

You seem to be getting some notice....

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/15/1442225&art_pos=1

http://www.sandiegoradionews.com/0100.htm

http://www.wickedtickle.com/index.php?topic=10655.msg39458




Yeah, I did not realize the type of traffic my site had, and the response it would have, the story is spreading around and not on my doing, so at the very least I may be able to start a shift in ASCAP's thoughts towards parodies. . .I don't know we shall see--the spread of 'news stories' about my site was unexpected.

http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/katyperry43.shtml

Why did yours get so many comments, and mine didn't... Wait it happened to you not me that's probably why.

It supposed to be, thank you for your support. . .I am in conversation via email with ASCAP about this on a daily basis, we are trying to understand where each other is coming from, I am hopeful something can be worked out.


well that would be nice if it works out. 

It supposed to be, thank you for your support. . .I am in conversation via email with ASCAP about this on a daily basis, we are trying to understand where each other is coming from, I am hopeful something can be worked out.

It's good that they're speaking, rather than just saying "see you in court".  Keep it up, Dave, you never know, you might be part of a new consensus in how parody is treated...

Dave, I just found out about your troubles.  If you haven't already, try contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org/about/contact.  I'm not saying they can help, or even will help, but this kind of stuff is up their alley.

Dave, I just found out about your troubles.  If you haven't already, try contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org/about/contact.  I'm not saying they can help, or even will help, but this kind of stuff is up their alley.




Thanks, I did contact them, they wanted more info but I have just finished a conversation with one of the higher ups at the ASCAP organization and for now since I have all of my work posted on Soundclick, and none of the parodists on my site are being particularly targeted I've decided on a brand new route, thank you for support McKludge. . .It sux, but at least I'm not having to go to court or anything crazy. . .

While we (badave.com) and ASCAP still have some differences in opinion, we have found some mutual understanding of each other's position. At this time the Pimp Your Parody section will be converted to link to parodies outside of badave.com (not to those that were already listed, but it will begin accepting such links), but I will not be hosting the parodies on my site any longer. Rather than go to court, or start a ruckus, which is not in the best interest of myself, the parodists who are part of the Badave Network or ASCAP and it's members, I am going to attempt to raise money and make badave.com a more self-sustaining site to host parodists work with an ASCAP, BMI and SCESA license, eventually, in the mean time I simply don't have the financial means to do this. ASCAP does not seem interested in shaking me down or starting an unnecessary legal battle any more than I do. While I don't feel that a performance license should be necessary to perform parodies, I also do have appreciation on ASCAP's point of view, and would like to include original songs in broadcasts and allow ASCAP licensed parodists such as Weird Al and The Great Luke Ski as well on my site, which by my previous posting would not have been possible without a complicated license process on my own. In short, thank you everyone for your support during this tough time, but I am now working on making badave.com a safe place for all parody performances and videos, and to do that I will need to find a way to raise money. The donations will stay open, and I will release certain works of mine that have been particularly popular at The Mad Music Archive in an effort to raise money to turn badave.com into a parody palace where everyone can feel safe posting parodies. I will also expand the news section and follow news regarding free speech, musicians, our favorite parodists like Weird Al, Cletus T Judd, and the 27 parody acts that were on my site and those who weren't as well.

The new show will be exclusive to the MMA until I have the financial means to host it on my website as well. If you were previously listed on my site--any song that was not scheduled for deletion due to broken links will automatically be eligible for air time in the new bi-weekly parody only show. It will feature a themed segment, with a new theme being chosen every two weeks. A What It Was/What It Is segment playing particularly hot parodies or requested parodies followed by their original targets. A Because My Media Player Said So segment that will literally be chosen by the shuffle on my media player using a playlist containing all eligible parodies (that is anything I've been told by the parodists themselves I can play). The Request Line which will feature parodies that have been requested by our listeners, and the Parody News and notes where not only will I go over big news in the world of comedy, parody and music--but you can post your news, debuts and information too. More coming on all of this over the course of this week. I already have most of my first playlist decided, BUT all parodists who have songs that you would like me to play, please send them to my mp3 correspondent who will forward them to me after making sure they aren't spam at mp3@badave.com

That's mp3@badave.com guys. . .anything over 10 MB, please PM personally here on the site and I will tell you how to get it to me. Remember, any parody is acceptable, but only parody (sorry--I love original comedy--but all the other shows play that-my show is strictly parody)

If you were listed on my site before, any song that was playable at the time I took it down will be hosted in the show, if you want your songs removed, please contact me through the "contact form" over at badave.com or PM here.

Viva Parody! Viva Badave! Viva Artistic Expression!

Okay if you want to use my songs you can.  I just don't have Black S M, When You D W K B C, and I did not believe he was my father Up on soundclick right now.  If I can get myself to write again,  songs I record on soundclick will have the OS from female artists.