No Return Contact

Well, I haven’t heard back from Coulton – which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a pretty popular guy and his inboxes are probably filled with love letters, marriage proposals, and screaming fan orgasms. I had once sent him an email myself thanking him for putting out French and never got a reply – not that I expected any but I have to admit other popular people I’ve contacted at least said “thanks”. 🙂

Anyway, it’s not even been 24 hours since I sent my message.

However. However, but, well there is this: The fact remains that he posted on his Facebook this morning in order to promote his current Kickstarter campaign. So the fact is that he did indeed sign into Facebook since the time I sent my message. And the fact is that he has not replied. Maybe he didn’t see my message past all of the others he probably has. Who knows. The fact remains that the signs point to “yeah, fat chance honey.” =^-^=

So I’ll research the parody laws to make sure I’m within “not trying to insult you” rights for a bit and just use my tambourine. Moments like these I want to go back in time and bitch slap my mother for not letting me join band in Jr. High. Or bitch slap the bill collectors for not letting me have the time to learn music late in life. =^-^= Or something. I’m not sure how this song will turn out, if it does at all.

While doing research on public domain melodies last night I came across a fun ditty called “Jeff in Petticoats” from the American Civil War era. Now I know most folks want to slit their wrists to popular Irish ballads and being a member of the SCA means I’m somehow expected to concentrate on songs from an earlier period in time but this little ditty seems like it will be fun to do. That’s one advantage to the SCA bard clique never letting me join: I’m not tied down. I’m like Dr. Who. I go whenever I want to. BWAHAHAHAAA

But I need to spend some time reminding myself of the parody laws first.

EDIT: So far according to the Fair Use Exception, Section 107, I’m okay. According to what I’ve found if Coulton got mad at me for this, a court would take four things into account:

1. Is the work “transformative”? Does it add something new to the song? Well, I’ll be adding a tambourine and a whole new set of lyrics; the new lyrics is something parody artists do the world over. Weird “Al” Yankovich being one of the most famous.

2. What is the nature of the parody It’s a creative expression on how the original sentiment from Coulton’s “I Want You Gone” fits the moment I’m referencing from Ever After. It’s not particularly funny, although most parodies are.

3. What is the amount of copyrighted song found in the parody?  Not much aside from the tune and a bit of the sentiment flow. With War’s original lyrics, most of the song had remained but I fixed that. You’re not making a parody unless you’re actually making a parody. =^-^= We did, however, keep one of the lines intact at the end on purpose being as we’re, you know, making a parody of the song and it fit that way.

4. What effects does this parody have on the market value of the original song? Well, the truth is that unless you give the “Glee” FOX kind of credit (which would be secretive and you’re lucky to figure it out), parodies are great PR for the original songs. There are a lot of songs, and artists, I have found because of a parody. However in this case? HA HA HAHA – no one even knows I do this so I doubt anything I do will have a serious impact one way or the other. However I still intend to give credit where credit is due.

So that leaves me with: would Coulton mind? I don’t have the answer to that. And a lot of people out there would just do the song without asking. I may just do the song. But through my research I have found he actually gives a big damn about his copyright – letting you and me have free songs is just part of his business model. And it’s a good one. But that still doesn’t answer my question.

Currently I’m leaning towards doing it and hoping he doesn’t hate me.

Filk Update

Let’s talk a moment about the filk my friend wrote for me. I think I’m ready to record. The lyrics are… well they’re not 100% how I like ’em but they probably never will be that. =^-^= I had to take my friend’s lyrics and make them fit the song. Her lyrics had great points but too many syllables.

In case you forgotten, the tune is from Johnathon Coulton’s “Want You Gone” from video game fame Portal 2. The filk is referencing Kim Harrison’s Ever After, a book I really should read if I can find the time. And this is where the fact I don’t play an instrument comes in, because obviously this means I can’t make my own musical arrangement. Well, if I wanted it to be straight tambourine I guess that would work but it doesn’t really.

The only voiceless musical arrangement I can find is by Coulton himself, so I found him on Facebook and shot him a message today. One should do that anyway, so okay dokay fine.

Hopefully he’ll get back to me on it. In the meantime I may take a look on triberr and see if I can find a guitar player willing to play it for me so that I can step a bit away from Coulton’s music – I love his arrangement piece. I think using it is slightly disrespectful.

And hopefully  he’ll say yes.