UPDATED: The Melbourne group Dukes of Windsor have released a new single titled ‘Its A War’ with lyrics that clearly refer to the futility of war - ‘All for none and none for all, Its a War’. Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal is the guest vocalist on the track.
The single is available as a free download from their website. There is also a YouTube competition to make an alternative video clip. The Grand prize is a day at their next video shoot, the opportunity to meet the band and CDs and DVDs of Universal music releases. Five runners up will also win the CDs and DVDs .
The band have what appears to be the official version of their film clip available on their MySpace page but it does little to inform the viewer of their interpretation of the lyrics. Although dressed in army greens, predominantly the clip features the band members running through the snow and having a snow ball fight with each other. There is a short section in which they run past a child doing a painting and throw red and yellow at each other which could be analogous for war particularly as red paint is left in the snow. The clip ends with one of the band members running into a shack and closing the door only to re-open it seemingly surprised that the others did not make it there.
In my opinion this clip lets down what might otherwise be a powerful political song. The song has (sound) samples of marching both at the beginning and at the end but the clip itself does little to depict war or to inform the audience of what appears to be the underlying message to the lyrics. Its a very safe clip indeed.
The YouTube competition was announced on their website on the 4 June 2008 and so far there are not many entries however if you have time check out the video uploaded by Hottidownunda1, do. This is a fantastic clip which provides a much better illustration of the sentiments of the song.
Another entry to the competition by eggplantboy7 encourages a war against pathetic Hollywood Films – perhaps someone might be inspired to upload a clip about the war on file sharing.
Both of these entries use images that would be subject to copyright protection in Australia (although may well be within the Fair Use provisions of the USA Copyright Act). Australians could not lawfully make these clips despite this clearly being a non commercial use. It is also arguable that just downloading clips which contain images that are protected by copyright in Australia is a breach of the law and possible that the band may be seen as authorising a breach of copyright by holding the competition.
This further illustrates why Australian copyright law is out of step with the every day use of creative works and inhibits creativity. It would be interesting to know if Universal music actually take steps to see whether the entrants are from the USA, Australia or another jurisdiction.
More Information
Dukes of Windsor website: <http://www.dukesofwindsor.com.au/>
Dukes of Windsor MySpace: <http://www.myspace.com/dukesofwindsor>
Dukes of Windsor YouTube Competition: http://www.youtube.com/group/itsawar
Triple J, Duke Of Windsor blame triple j for Jesse Hughes cameo (18 April 2008) <http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/musicnews/s2221236.htm> at 22 June 2008
TechDirt, Is Watching An Infringing YouTube Video Copyright Infringement? (16 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080514/1736121116.shtml> at 21 May 208
CNet News, Legal liability for YouTube viewers (19 May 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13739_3-9936833-46.html> at 23 June 2008
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