
‘We Shall Overcome’ Is Put in Public Domain in a Copyright Settlement - denzil_correa
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/business/media/we-shall-overcome-copyright.html
======
vanderZwan
> _In a statement, Ludlow said royalties from the song since the early 1960s
> had been donated to the nonprofit Highlander Research and Education Center
> in Tennessee, which created the We Shall Overcome Fund to distribute all of
> the royalties through grants and scholarships in black communities. It was
> not immediately clear how much money the fund had distributed. “Without the
> same scope of copyright protection, Highlander’s grants and scholarships
> will be deeply affected in the future,” the statement said._

Without transparency, I am leaning towards assuming there is a hefty dose of
Hollywood Accounting (or whatever the name for the the music industry's
equivalent is) going on[0].

> _Ludlow also said uses of the song had in the past been “carefully vetted”
> but warned that its words and melody could now be used by advertising
> agencies and others “in any manner they wish, including inaccurate
> historical uses, commercials, parodies, spoofs and jokes, and even for
> political purposes by those who oppose civil rights for all Americans.”_

Oh I am _sure_ that a for-profit company "vetting" potential clients is much
more reliable than the inevitability of a huge social backlash against anyone
foolish enough to use this song for selfish purposes.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting)

~~~
ENOTTY
CharityNavigator entry for Highlander Center:
[https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...](https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7634)

~~~
IntronExon
I went in hoping for blood, but that’s actually pretty good. Unless they’re
fudging their financials in a truly criminal way, and there’s no reason to
believe that, it’s a tight ship with low administrative overhead. They’re
spending a bit over 70% on their programs, and not too much on admin or
fundraising.

------
icebraining
An interview with Pete Seeger about the song:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-FmQEFFFko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-FmQEFFFko)

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amag
'We Shall Overcome' was unfortunately forever destroyed for me by a Swedish
politician (Birgit Friggebo) who suggested it once in a meeting with a lot of
agitated people[1] in order to "lower the mood" (sic). As stated in the
Wikipedia article[2] this is probably one of the most embarrassing moments in
Swedish politics.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqPMROclcM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqPMROclcM)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Overcome#Widespread_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Overcome#Widespread_adaptation)

~~~
alsetmusic
> As stated in the Wikipedia article[2] this is probably one of the most
> embarrassing moments in Swedish politics.

I checked the linked Wikipedia entry and it didn’t give any context for why
this was such an embarrassment. I also searched Google for more info, but the
English-only search results didn’t turn up anything useful. I gave up after
the first five or so had nothing to add.

I’m curious if you can give a more detailed explanation of why this was such a
gaffe. The limited info on this incident isn’t helping me paint a picture of
the situation. As it stands, it seems to be a rather harmless request. I’m
missing something significant, I think, about the delivery or tone.

Edit: I should clarify that I’m reading this at a time when I am not in a
position to follow the YouTube link.

~~~
anigbrowl
_As the attempted serial killer "Lasermannen" shot several immigrants around
Stockholm in 1992, Prime Minister Carl Bildt and Immigration Minister Birgit
Friggebo attended a meeting in Rinkeby. As the audience became upset, Friggebo
tried to calm them down by proposing that everyone sing "We Shall Overcome."
This statement is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing moments in
Swedish politics._

Seems pretty obvious to me. Responding to a real political problem with an
empty gesture of solidarity is everything people don't like about politicians.

~~~
eesmith
It isn't obvious to me. Others have sung 'We Shall Overcome' as a gesture of
solidarity after hate crimes or killings. For examples:

"'We Shall Overcome': Mourners Honor Orlando Victims At The White House" from
[http://dcist.com/2016/06/emotional_scene_outside_white_house...](http://dcist.com/2016/06/emotional_scene_outside_white_house.php#photo-1)

"'If that young man thought he was going to divide this country he failed
miserably': Thousands unite and sing We Shall Overcome at Charleston prayer
vigil" from [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132292/Thousands-
ga...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132292/Thousands-gather-
Charleston-area-vigil-remember-nine-slain-churchgoers-mercilessly-killed-
bible-study.html)

"NAACP leaders joined local clergy and others to call for police reform in
Chicago. After speaking with media, protesters linked arms and knelt in the
street while singing "We Shall Overcome," blocking traffic." from
[http://abc7chicago.com/news/jason-van-dyke-posts-bond-
leaves...](http://abc7chicago.com/news/jason-van-dyke-posts-bond-leaves-
jail/1103665/) .

"Citizens were joined by religious leaders, city leaders and a Huntington
police officer and walked through the streets singing, "we shall overcome,"
and chanting, "stop the drugs, stop the violence."" from
[http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Prayer-for-peace-vigil-
held...](http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Prayer-for-peace-vigil-held-for-
Huntington-homicide-crisis-464486873.html) .

There are also examples of "We Shall Overcome" being sung by politicians for
something other than murder:

"House Democrats sing 'We Shall Overcome' shame GOP during sit-in" from
[http://www.kens5.com/news/politics/national-
politics/house-d...](http://www.kens5.com/news/politics/national-
politics/house-democrats-sing-we-shall-overcome-shame-gop-during-sit-
in/253183246)

Is the embarrassing part in the Swedish case the it was a _politician_ who
tried to organize the singing? Or was it the implication that immigrants in
Sweden are treated like black people in America? Or the expectation that
immigrants would both identify with the American civil rights experience and
know the song? Or something else?

If a politician in Sweden were to lead people to sing The Internationale,
would that also be seen as an "empty gesture of solidarity"? (My assumption is
that socialist-leaning Sweden has politicians who sing the national anthem.
[https://www.thelocal.se/20090406/18692](https://www.thelocal.se/20090406/18692)
says 'the [SDU] party also offered up renditions of socialist and communist
songs such as "the Internationale" and "Song for Stalin"' so it's not like
it's an uncommon song there like it is in the US.)

~~~
anigbrowl
It's the difference between leading people who are asking for leadership and
treating them like unruly children when they are trying to articulate issues
in their own voice. In this case the crowd was expressing its dissatisfaction
with the failure of the political authorities to keep their communities safe;
they were critiquing leadership rather than asking to be inspired.

Context matters. The song itself isn't the issue; singing 'We shall overcome'
might have been fine _after_ a free and frank exchange of views in which the
crowd had had a chance to articulate their grievances, and the politicians had
had a chance to explain what they proposed to do about them, and common ground
had been established.

~~~
eesmith
I agree that context matters. I felt that your original description was too
context-free to agree that your conclusion was "pretty obvious". Instead, it
seemed more like a blanket dislike of politicians.

------
drdeadringer
Now I'm curious about church hymns and then again about how UUs can "get away
with" changing the words to "others' hymns" and republish as new.

~~~
matt4077
You can create a new work subject to copyright incorporating other works. Any
movie with music is an example, and so is “sampling” in music, or translations
of books.

At issue here is wether the changes to the song were significant enough for it
to be considered a creative work.

This is no different than the test for a de novo work:

    
    
        Echo „hello world“
    

Is not enough to trigger copyright protection. Yet the MacOS source code is.
Somewhere between the two, there is a line of demarcation. Where exactly that
line is was the subject of this lawsuit.

------
upofadown
Where is the settlement here? It was a court clarifying that some people
didn't actually have the copyright they claimed.

------
phjesusthatguy3
The moral of the story is: if you're running into (truly) BS legal
ramifications for your project, fight it.

~~~
omeid2
Assuming, you can afford a law firm.

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peterburkimsher
Non-paywalled link, anyone? (ironically)

