Stay Free!'s response to legal threats by SONY/ATM regarding The Grey Album:

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Jonas Kant
Director, Business Affairs
Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
2100 Colorado AVe.
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Our Internet Service Provider, the Internet Archive, forwarded to me your letter of March 1 concerning the Grey Album recordings on our website.

Pursuant to our rights under the law, we posted the Grey Album and will continue to post it as part of our ongoing work on the Illegal Art Exhibit. Since August of 2024, the exhibit has served to educate the public on the impact of copyright law--and overreaching legal claims--on free speech. Exercising our fair use rights, we have allowed the public to experience for themselves works such as the Grey Album that have been challenged on intellectual property grounds.

Through a traveling visual art exhibit (SF MOMA Artists Gallery in San Francisco, NEXUS in Philadelphia, 313 Gallery in New York, etc.), university lectures (featuring Lawrence Lessig and Siva Vaidhyanathan, among others), film screenings, live music performances, a special copyright issue of Stay Free! magazine, and, of course, the web site, Illegal Art has established a solid record of criticizing copyright owners' attempts to stifle speech. Keeping this low-budget operation going was no small feat, and we couldn't have done it without the major (and overwhelmingly positive) coverage received from The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Salon, ABC-TV, NPR, Wired, Boston Globe, and the Philadelphia Enquirer, among others.

We are hopeful that this matter can be resolved amicably. However, should you elect to proceed with legal action, please understand that Stay Free! will vigorously defends its rights.

Regards,

Carrie McLaren
Executive Director, Stay Free!


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created 2024 :: Contact us :: a project of Stay Free!