Home Taping is Killing Music
Encyclopedia
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
campaign by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
(BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder
Cassette deck
A cassette deck is a type of tape recorder for playing or recording audio compact cassettes. A deck was formerly distinguished from a recorder as being part of a stereo component system, while a recorder had a self-contained power amplifier...
popularity, the BPI feared that people being able to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales. The logo, consisting of a Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger is any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field. This design was used by...
formed from the silhouette of a Compact Cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
, also included the words And It's Illegal.
The campaign has in recent years had its revival, as the Norwegian branch of IFPI
IFPI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland...
launched a new campaign named Piracy Kills Music. The campaign has exactly the same message, same name and even very similar logos. The campaign won the Norwegian 2008 Gulltaggen award for "Best Internet Strategy" with much controversy.
An early 'proponent' of home taping was Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
who was at the time managing the British band Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow were an English 1980s New Wave band created by Malcolm McLaren to promote his and business partner Vivienne Westwood's New Romantic fashion lines.The group's music is described as having an "African-derived drum sound".-History:...
. In 1980 the band released their Cassette single
Cassette single
A cassette single is a music single in the form of a Compact Cassette.- History :...
"C30, C60, C90 Go" on a cassette that featured a blank other side that the buyer could record their own music on. The band's record label, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, dropped the group shortly afterwards because the single allegedly promoted home taping.
Parodies
The slogan was often parodiedParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, one example being the addendum and it's about time too!, used by Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
band The Ex. Some fanzines changed the words to Home taping is killing the music industry and added the words ...so be sure to do your part! below the logo. Another example was the early 1980s counter-slogan Home Taping is Skill in Music, referring to early mixtapes, a precursor to sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es. In 1981 the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
printed "Home taping is killing record industry profits! We left this side blank so you can help" on one side of In God We Trust, Inc.
In God We Trust, Inc.
In God We Trust, Inc. is a hardcore punk EP by the Dead Kennedys; it is now reissued with the Plastic Surgery Disasters album. The thrashing, lightning-fast beats and shouted vocals, on the first six tracks, resembles Washington D.C.'s punk bands of the time; more than on any other Dead Kennedys...
EP. The cassette & crossbones image was displayed briefly as a backdrop in the "Time Out For Fun" video by the band Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
from their 1982 album, "Oh, No! It's Devo
Oh, No! It's Devo
Oh, No! It's Devo is the fifth studio album by Devo. By the time of its 1982 release, Devo were a full-fledged synth-pop act, with New Wave pushed more towards the background...
". Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
's 1982 album Black Metal
Black Metal (album)
Black Metal is the second album by the English band Venom. It was released in November 1982 and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s. Although lending its name to the latter genre, today the album is often...
used the logo with the words Home Taping Is Killing Music; So Are Venom. The phrase Home-Taping Is Making Music appears on the back cover of Peter Principle
Peter Principle
The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J...
's self-produced 1988 album Tone Poems. The San Diego punk band Rocket from the Crypt
Rocket from the Crypt
Rocket from the Crypt was an American rock band led by John Reis, formed in 1989 in San Diego, California and disbanded in 2005.The band gained critical praise and the attention of major record labels after the release of their 1992 album Circa: Now!, leading to a recording contract with Interscope...
sold T-shirts with the tape and bones and the words "Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry: Killing Ain't Wrong." Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
has t-shirts with the cassette and sonic youth written under it. The cover of Billy Bragg's
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
album Workers Playtime featured a notice reading "Capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
is killing music - pay no more than £4.99 for this record". Mitch Benn
Mitch Benn
Mitch Benn is a British musician and stand-up comedian known for his humorous songs performed on BBC radio. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's satirical programme The Now Show, and has hosted other radio shows.Benn has performed at several music festivals, and at the Edinburgh Festival...
also comments "Home taping isn't killing music, music's dying of natural causes" in the song "Steal This Song" on the album Radioface. Another variant is "home fucking is killing prostitution."
More recently, the pro-p2p
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
group Downhill Battle
Downhill Battle
Downhill Battle is a non-profit organization based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It launched in August 2003 and argues that the four major recording labels have an oligopoly that is bad for both musicians and music culture...
has used the slogan "Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry, and It's Fun" on T-shirts, and the BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
uses the logo of a pirate ship whose sails bear the "tape and bones." Additionally the Pirate Party UK
Pirate Party UK
Pirate Party UK is a political party in the United Kingdom. The Pirate Party's core policies are to bring about reform to Copyright and Patent laws, support privacy and reduce surveillance from government and businesses, and guarantee genuine freedom of speech for everyone.The Pirate Party UK...
has a version of the tape and bones with the logo "copyright is killing music - and it's legal" and the Swedish Piratbyrån
Piratbyrån
Piratbyrån was a Swedish organization established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property — by freely sharing information and culture...
is using the same tape and bones as their logo.
Similar rhetoric has continued; in 1982 Jack Valenti
Jack Valenti
Jack Joseph Valenti was a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38-year tenure in the MPAA, he created the MPAA film rating system, and he was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world...
famously compared the VCR
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
and its anticipated effect on the movie industry
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 , also known as the "Betamax case", is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of time-shifting does not constitute copyright...
to the Boston Strangler
Boston Strangler
The Boston Strangler is a name attributed to the murderer of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the early 1960s. Though the crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo, investigators of the case have since suggested the murders were not committed by one person.-First Stage...
, and in 2005 Mitch Bainwol
Mitch Bainwol
Mitch Bainwol has been the chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America since 2003, succeeding Hilary Rosen. Prior to filling this position, he worked for 25 years in politics and federal policy-making. He and his wife Susan are parents of three children.-Early life and...
of the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
claimed that CD burning is hurting music sales.
In March 2010, TalkTalk
TalkTalk
TalkTalk is a pay television, telecommunications and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
, as part of its campaign against the UK Government's filesharing proposals, created a spoof video entitled "Home Taping is Killing Music". The song was written and performed by singer/songwriter Dan Bull
Dan Bull
Dan Bull is an English rapper and songwriter known for his politically orientated lyrics and specific addressing of high profile figures in his music...
and featured lookalikes of Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
and Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
lip-synching to the song.
Other references
- "Home Taping's Killing Music" is also the title of a short song by Misty's Big AdventureMisty's Big AdventureMisty's Big Adventure are an eight piece band from Birmingham, England. Their music is an eclectic mix of jazz, lounge, psychedelia, two tone, pop and punk....
, a band from BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, which takes the implications of this slogan to their illogical conclusion. - In 2005, Zane LoweZane LoweZane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
, a DJ on Radio 1BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, toured around the United Kingdom with the Home Taping Tour. The promotional materials for this tour bore the skull-and-bones logo. - The IT CrowdThe IT CrowdThe IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4, written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry...
had a parody "Home Sewing is killing fashion" poster in Roy's kitchen, Roy also wears a "Home Taping is Killing Music" t-shirt in season four. - The Pirate BayThe Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, a controversial SwedishSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
website that indexes BitTorrent files, uses the tape and crossbones in their logo and on merchandise. - Ska punkSka punkSka punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. It achieved its highest level of commercial success in the United States in the late 1990s. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk.The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting...
band, Bomb the Music Industry!Bomb The Music Industry!Bomb the Music Industry! is band from Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. They write, produce, record, and distribute all of their music under the leadership of songwriter and producer Jeff Rosenstock....
parodied the logo with an iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
in place of the tape. This was created by frontman Jeff Rosenstock and it has been seen spray painted on their t-shirts.
See also
- Spin (public relations)Spin (public relations)In public relations, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure...
- Piracy Is TheftPiracy is theft"Piracy is theft" was a slogan used by UK non-profit organization FAST . It was first used in the 1980s and has since then been used by other similar organisations such as MPAA.-See also:* Property is theft!...
- You Can Click, But You Can't HideYou can click, but you can't hideYou can click, but you can't hide is a publicity campaign run jointly by several international associations, most notably the MPA, the MPAA, and the GVU, as part of the larger "Respect Copyrights" campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing of motion pictures...
- Don't Copy That FloppyDon't Copy That FloppyDon’t Copy That Floppy was an anti-copyright infringement campaign run by the Software Publishers Association beginning in 1992. The video for the campaign, starring M. E. Hart as “MC Double Def DP,” was filmed at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C...
- You Wouldn't Steal a Car
- Knock-off NigelKnock-off NigelKnock-off Nigel was an anti-piracy campaign in the United Kingdom.The campaign included a series of television advertisements in which the eponymous Nigel was described as having bought pirated DVDs, illegally downloaded films, and so on, to the accompaniment of a derisive song: "He's a knock-off...