2.3.4 Tell me about the Negativland incident (U2)
Description
This article is from the U2 FAQ, by Maryann Stump stumpm@juno.com with numerous contributions by others.
2.3.4 Tell me about the Negativland incident (U2)
[SL] I have chosen to quote here a 'neutral' answer. This is sampled from
the music /alternative-faq /part1 file,
available from and maintained by Joshua Buergel - allroy@cmu.edu -
jbbb@andrew.cmu.edu. If you'd like to
get the mentioned lyrics, check out question #1
[MJS] Since this incident has faded somewhat, I've shortened this answer
a bit. The full version is still available
at the address above.
A: The Negativland _U2_ single put out in late '91 by SST Records and
featured two tracks, both of which
made fun of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Shortly
after its release, an enormous legal
document arrived at SST from Island Records/ Warner-Chappel Publishing,
the gist of which was that SST was
getting its butt sued for putting the thing out. Among the charges being
leveled were that the packaging was
deceptive (this was reportedly the biggest problem that Island had with
the record), that the use of various
unauthorized samples on the single were copyright infringement
(Negativland maintained that as a piece of
satire the samples should have been allowed) and lots of other charges.
Incidentally, the "deceptive" packaging
as that the single had "U2" in huge letters on the front with
"Negativland" in really small letters across the
bottom. Island apparently felt that such packaging was intended to
deceive the consumer into believing it was a
U2 release.
Anyway, SST and Negativland got squashed. The settled out of court.
Total damages: $90,000. SST tried to
get Negativland to pay the entire bill while N'land offered to pay half.
No agreement was reached and N'land
left SST records, whose owner (Greg Ginn, ex-Black Flag guitarist)
threatened lawsuits. Shortly thereafter
Negativland put out a CD and magazine combo entitled "The Letter U and
the Numeral 2" which documents the
whole fiasco, including press releases, legal documents, articles and
everything else possibly concerned with the
whole situation.
[MJS] Finally, I think it's worthwhile to let U2 have their say in this.
The Edge was interviewed by Mondo 2000
magazine in 1992. Two members of Negativland took part in the interview,
although this was not revealed to
the Edge until halfway through the interview. The entire text of this
interview is available What follows is a
very brief excerpt of U2's perception of the incident.
EDGE: Yeah, well from what I can remember, I can't remember the exact
sequence of events, but as it was
presented to us, you know, "Here's the record, here's the album sleeve,
Island are already on the case here, and
they've objected because they feel it's, because of the artwork, this is
at a time when a lot of people are
expecting a new U2 record," and they felt that, from their own point of
view, in a pure business sense, nothing
about art, I just think they felt there was a chance that people would
pick up the record in a record shop and
think, "Oh, this is the new U2 album."
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