The Gray Album demonstrated that an illegal remix can achieve massive cultural impact and highlight the absurdity of current copyright law

In 2004, Danger Mouse combined Jay-Z’s Black Album a cappellas with samples from the Beatles’ White Album to create The Gray Album, distributed as a limited promotional item. EMI (controlling the Beatles’ masters) sent cease-and-desist letters. Fans responded with ‘Grey Tuesday’ — simultaneously posting the album online in protest. The album was effectively suppressed legally but spread virally, becoming one of the most-discussed albums of 2004 — while ‘nobody made a dime.’ The film uses this as evidence that the current clearance system produces irrational outcomes: commercially successful creative work is destroyed, no one benefits financially, and the law creates an underclass of sampler-outlaws.

Examples

The Gray Album: ‘if it were actually for sale might have been one of the biggest hits of 2004. Another of the absurdities of the music industry is that nobody made a dime from one of the most successful albums of 2004.‘

Assessment

Describe what happened with The Gray Album. What does the case reveal about the relationship between copyright law and creative/commercial value?