Comments on: 'Electric Slide' on slippery DMCA slope

Yes, you can copyright a dance. And the man who owns the rights to the iconic wedding shuffle isn't pleased that it's popping up on the Web.

[anti-wireless-dude]

electric gomer

Some people have nothing better to do with their lives I guess... A
silly waste of litigation... If he's so upset about his dance being
done wrong, maybe he should start producing a dance video
showing people how to do the electric slide properly. Then maybe
he'd stop listening to lawyers and filing goofy lawsuits.

[ralfthedog]

This may be the end of the DMCA!

Not the YMCA (I wish it was the end) but a law suit like this brings out the silliness of a very silly law.

[a155mm]

I hope so!

My company produces software that is protected by a key card in the server. We don't run around suing everyone that has a screen that may look like one of ours. You can just protect some items so far and then it becomes an exercise in the absurd.

Next you'll have IBM suing everyone who wears a white shirt.

[jp10293847]

Excellent. Let this frivolous suit demonstrate...

just how frivolous this legislation is. I think every jackass out there should use this legislation to protect his worthless intellectual property and bog down the courts to the detriment of the sleazy lobbyists who got it passed in the first place.

[darrenretro]

a joke

Im waiting for someone to start suing over he said she said. Geo W sure has made a mess of things

[GGGlen]

But not as messy as your fuzzy head

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current
President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001.
Per EFF.ORG "On October 28, 2000 the controversial Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) took full effect, criminalizing the
act of circumvention of a technological protection system put in
place by a copyright holder -- even if one has a fair use right to
access that information.
Gee, care to guess who was president in 2000?

[Andrew Pingrey]

The DMCA is working

Although Ric Silver's claims seem ridiculous to me, his method shows how the DMCA is working on the democratic web. Using limited legal resources in the framework, this copyright holder is on the same level as who he opposes. At this early stage, the parties can agree with limited harm or disagree and choose to escalate it to litigation. This buffer protects the innocent against 'junk' lawsuits without wasting taxpayer money.

[mpotter28]

wrong

THis is just an example of somebody with no legal claim wasting people time and money. The DMCA is about protecting the money of Bush's friends. The fact that they did no useful work isn't important all thats important is that you officially joined "THE CLUB" and need protection from that unsavory,scummy mob called voters. In this case the person appears to be just looking for his "15 min." (or possibly just pointing out how stupid this particular law is), The real person who gets protection (just an example) from this law is the "upper class twit" from American Idol who having discovered he has no real ability seems have decided to use the law to steal from people with talent.
One of the main principles of western civilization is to provide an even playing field for every one. The DMCA is about giving the "800 lb gorilla" a machine gun to help him while he gets "anything he wants".

[kyle172]

Get a life Gezz

Get a life I mean come on stop trying to profit

[kyle172]

Get a life Gezz

Get a life I mean come on stop trying to profit

[anomalator]

What the...?

Is this guy serious?! Just when you think you've read, and seen (thanks to YouTube) it all, something like this comes along. This guy is either hard up for some cash or he has way too much spare time on his hands. GET A LIFE, DUDE!

The DMCA and idiots: it's a dangerous combination!

[HarleyD50]

Disco?

Dude, disco is DEAD!
Electric Slide? WHO CARES!

[HarleyD50]

Cash

It's for the CASH...

[deejai58]

What's Next?

What's next? The Macarena? The chicken dance?
Oh the humanity!1

[troppp]

How About...

How about no more dancing, singing, playing music, or listening to music without a permit? (Whistling in the dark included) Violators will be punished to the full extent of the law. I'm sure some company out there is working to quantify the concept of 'fun'. Fun will be copyrighted. Anybody caught having fun (having or expressing feelings and emotions that are within the patented parameters) without paying will be cited for infringement.

What is life about anymore anyways?

[lord vegas]

Curious to know??

I want to know when he applied for a copywrite. This dance has been in existance for at least 40 years. His copywrite probably should have been denied because it was already in common public use status when he filed for the copywrite. If he wins I'm filing of copywrite status of the word "news" and for the color "red".

[jjlnva]

Thanks Mr. I have to spoil everyone's fun!

Is this getting a bit out of control (yes!) or does this guy have so
much passion to copyright a dance no one knows the correct
moves? Hold on, there's a correct way to do that dance? I
wouldn't know, I usually have a pretty good buzz on by the time
that song plays or looking for a restroom like every other guy
who doesn't want to get dragged onto the dance floor by there
girlfriend or wife.

Which brings up a question which came first the song or the
dance? If the song came first did he pay the copyright holder any
royalties for inspiring him to put a dance? I hope he paid the
song's copyright holder...

The only people who will be happy will be the lawyers and any
male who now has a good excuse not to get dragged on the
dance floor, "sorry honey, they're video tapping I don't want to
get sued if this ends up on the web"

[cooldogjones]

Are u friggin kidding me...?!?

Who in their right mind allowed a dance to be copyrighted?
Dancing goes back to the Stone Age. Since fellow man walked
upright.

I'm waiting for the day when God (or the God's) come down and
lecture us about what's really important in life.

A message to Silver, "Take a little trip to the middle east and get a
REALITY CHECK ON LIFE, BUDDY".

[Dr. B]

It's a sad, sad, sad, sad world

I'm generally one to stand up for copywrites, but in a case like this,
I think it's totally rediculous. I really can't say enough about it to
truly point out how stupid this is.

[viperpa]

Load of garbage

I remember being a DJ 10 years ago for a small bar. Nothing big, small place where people can have fun. People use to request the electric slide all the time. Use to play the song at least 3 times a night. The people didn't care doing the dance perfectly but people had fun doing it. The people didn't do the dance the way this guy does it, they had there own version. At the end of the night people left happy.

He has not made people happy doing this but made people distrust the entertainment industry as a whole. When does suing people cause they are happy the human way.

[p40tomahawk]

Then it's not his dance anyway...

If he's worried, as he says he his, about the dance being done "wrong", then IT'S NOT HIS DANCE, and he has no standing in terms of copyright. A different dance is not subject to whatever copyright he thinks he owns on his "correct" version. Please. Idiot.

[mgarc1125]

That's what I was thinking!

If its done wrong, its not his dance!

[mrcjd07]

Not an idiot.

Um, actually there's this thing called a derivative work. See 17
U.S.C. Section 106(2).

[AttitudeDancer]

Who's an Idiot and Who's Smarter.

Number one Idiots should not condemn someone for protecting there property especially when they do not know what they are talking about. My friend if a own a million dollar piece of art and you change (alter) part of it, do I still not own it? Why does changing it void my ownership rights?

Richard Silver is interested in protecting his ownership of what some of you call a "stupid dance" while it is worth in access of a million dollars. Some people say he copied from the "Hustle". Did he or was the Hustle copied from the Electric Slide? How much did Bally Fitness pay for movements of the Electric Slide that became know as the Cha-Cha Slide? Where the movements of the Cha-Cha Slide as sold by DJ Casper original or did he copy them from the Electric Slide in 1995? How much has DJ Casper made off of the Cha-Cha Slide? It is clearly the Electric Slide with did words and commands. How much have other made off of other renditions of Ric Silver's genious?

Do I really believe that all of you that dislike the song, the dance, and Ric Silver's attempts to protect it, would really not come forward to claim and protect your rights if you knew that those rights where worth over a million dollar? Let's be honest!

[Sevenfeet0]

Prior Art

The outrageous thing is that this guy didn't even invent this dance in the 70's. My mother (age 64) remembers this dance being called "The Madison" back in the early '60's and one of her friends remembers doing this dance in the '50's. If anyone if getting harrassed by this guy for DMCA, I'd call his bluff.

[mrcjd07]

Prior art is only relevant to Patent

Actually, prior art defeats the claim to novelty only under PATENT
LAW. All Copyright requires is a minimal amount of creativity/
independent creation. If this guy thought of the dance
independently, even if it were identical to somebody else's, he
would still be entitled to a copyright. He might not be able to
enforce it, as he would have to prove an infinger copied HIS dance
and not somebody else's, but he'd still be entitled to copyright.

[TheDancer]

The Madison is a 40's dance

I would love to talk to these people and get their facts - in as much as I have printed materials and signed affadavits

[perfectblue97]

Digital milenium copright *ss more like

Has anybody noticed that the DMCA allows companies to perminantly remove our consumer rights.

If a record company puts even the most basic copy protection on something, that automatically trumps our "Fair Use" right to back up our store brought CDs, or even to copy them on to our ipods.

This is capitalism gone made.

[steer99]

ignorant

You've got it entirely backwards. The provision of the DMCA (17 USC 512) that Electric Slide guy used to request takedowns of the video LIMITS the rights of copyright holders by immunizing ISPs (like YouTube) from liability if they comply with the takedown request. Prior to enactment of the DMCA, an ISP could be liable for the infringing acts of a subscriber.

So, know what you're talking about before you accuse the DMCA of being the root of all your imagined copyright ills.

[steer99]

you are incorrect

You've got it entirely backwards. The provision of the DMCA (17 USC 512) that Electric Slide guy used to request takedown of the video LIMITS the rights of copyright colders by immunizing ISPs from liability if they comply with takedown requests. Prior to the DMCA, an ISP could be liable for the infringing acts of a subscriber.

So, don't blame the DMCA for all the copyright ills you imagine.

[iamotaku]

So if they're doing it incorrectly....

Is it the electric slide?
Let's just sue everyone who ever danced or tried to dance, then sue them for the music they dared to listen to while dancing. Keep it up all you money grubbing lawyers/leaches, eventually the masses will just tell you all to go to hell. Right now I'm thinking about a blues session I thoroughly enjoyed at Joe's Generic Bar the last time I was in Austin. I'm sure if the lawyers thought long and hard they could find a way to sue me for replaying that memory in my head. This has gotten way out of hand. Sleazy lawyers inept judges, start applying some common sense for God's sake.

[mstrhypno]

Somebody Alert Chubby Checker!

If THIS guy's suits pass muster, then Chubby Checker's MANY versions of The Twist and The Peppermint Twist are now also fair game!

However, I thought that there was a statute of limitations on FILING for infringement...! I know that I ran into that when someone published material of MINE a few years ago...

And tewnty-sever YEARS seems a little LONG for a statute of limitations on anything in civil court... at ALL!

[rodparkes]

Chubby Checker wasn't the first twister

Although Chubby Checker undoubtedly popularised the twist, he didn't originate it. The first twist record was put out by Hank Ballard in 1958, a year before Checker covered it.