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Monday, February 05, 2007
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Wedding Dancers Beware

Among those strange random facts that I happen to hold in my head is the fact that the "Happy Birthday Song" is actually protected by a copyright.  It's owned by Summy-Birchard Music, which is now part AOL Time Warner.  Now I can add another strange piece of copyright trivia to my brain, because I just found out that the Electric Slide is also copy written, and the copyright owner is apparently going around demanding that You Tube video featuring it being performed must be taken down under the DCMA:

Kyle Machulis, an engineer at San Francisco's Linden Lab, said he received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice about a video he had shot at a recent convention showing three people doing the Electric Slide.

"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.
...
But on the YouTube page Silver himself posted showing the Electric Slide, he wrote, "Any video that shows my choreography being done incorrectly is being removed. I don't want future generations having to learn it wrong and then relearn it as I am being faced with now because of certain sites and (people) that have been teaching it incorrectly and without my permission. That's the reason I (copyrighted) it in the first place."

For my part, I'm free and clear of any worry.  There is no video evidence of me doing the electric slide, and if asked, I will deny any knowledge of the dance steps.

# Posted at 10:49 AM by Nick  |  Comment Feed Link No Comments  |  No Trackbacks

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