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shadowkatSeason 5's Good Wife continues to be excellent. This week's episode case of the week was a copyright infringement case involving two covers of a rap song, which resulted in psychological warfare between opposing counsels. The song - which was described by the original artist as a satirical take on the type of guy who feels the need to put women down in order to build up his own ego - worked as a metaphor for the tensions between the characters.
Like the majority of the episodes this season, it was deftly layered. But I particularly enjoyed the deft depiction of the complex nature of copyright law. And why it's impossible to create an ideal law. At the center of the complexity is a disagreement on what is an original work, what is a transformative work, and a derivative work. You'd think the distinctions are simple. They aren't. The Good Wife portrayed these complexities in a hilarious fashion.
The song was Tricky Dick...a somewhat catchy earworm song by a rapper, Rebel Kane, who had served time in prison with Alicia's husband. But he's not Alicia's client. The client is a band that Alicia and Cary hired for the Xmas party. Portrayed by Mathew Lillard (reminding me a bit too much of the roles he played in the 1980s), and another guy, who I didn't recognize - the band is a two guy band that looks a lot like the guys from FUN (who wrote We Are Young). They basically sing "Americana" or Alternative Folk...and their cover of Tricky Dick is a softer version of the song...or the rap put to a melody. They obtained compulsory rights to record it. (Alicia and Carey get the derivative rights from Rebel Kane after the fact.) They hire Alicia and Carey to sue a television network for stealing their cover version for a tv show called Drama Club- which is basically a teen show about a Talent Show at a Summer Camp. (Which actually exists believe it or not.) The TV's shows version has made 2.3 Million in downloads.
F. Murray Abraham is back as Preston, representing the network. He goes to Lockhardt/Gardner to confront Alicia. (Alicia really needs to let everyone know that she's no longer with Lockhardt/Gardner.) And ends up in a tete-a-tete with Will - who seizes the opportunity to go head-to-head with Alicia - hopefully to beat and humiliate her. (The poor boy's ego has been bruised and he wants to take her down a peg.) Preston reluctantly agrees to let Will co-counsel, even though he doesn't really like him - but as Will puts it, does it matter?
The enemy of your enemy is your friend - ie. they both want to get Alicia.
This brings up the song - which Rebel Kane describes as a joke or poking fun at the guy who wants to take women down a peg. The song describes three men in this episode.
1) Will - who is attempting to take two women, who hurt him, down. The first is Diane, who left the firm and then came back. He's happy she's back - but he wants her to let him lead. Let him be the boss. He doesn't want to share the power. Diane has put a moratorium on all new business ventures until things calm down. Will attempts to overthrow Diane's moratorium by cooking the vote in his direction, using Damian (the shady lawyer that he hired without Diane's permission). Diane confronts Will and he is upfront with her about it - he tells her that instead of questioning his every move, she should use this new determination that he has to her advantage and let him lead the company into new ventures, new risks. Diane backs off.
The second, is Alicia. When Alicia discovers Will has yet again chosen to be opposing counsel on a case that she is litigating, she tells him that he needs to get over it. Every time she turns around - he's opposing her, come on. (Diane for the record more or less has stated the same thing...gently telling Will that he's had a bit of an emotional/psychological break and should ease back a bit - but Will goes on the attack and denies it.) As a result, this doesn't go quite as well. Alicia doesn't back down, and with Robin and Cary's assistance succeeds in taking Will down a few pegs. Will plays dirty pool - deliberately upsetting her game. (He interrupts her flow of questioning with repetitive objections - a trite but true litigation tactic). Alicia takes Cary's advice and finds a way to distract Will. She wears the same suit that he first banged her in (her words). Which works brilliantly. Will sees her in it - and can only think about them having sex in the elevator. (Considering Will seems to think of sex every time he looks at Alicia, and appears to only think of her as a sexual object or animal - this isn't hard to do. He is in regards to Alicia, the Tricky Dick of the song. In fact the song is in effect about Alicia and Will.)
2. Eli - Eli gets it into his head that Marilyn may be pregnant with Peter Florick's kid. He hires Kalinda to investigate Marilyn. He uses Alicia to get Kalinda to agree - stating he knows she can be discrete and keep Alicia from finding out. Kalinda discovers evidence that the kid may in fact be Peter Florick's but isn't sure. The writer's play on the popular name - Peter - and how many people have that name. Eli pushes Marilyn, who finally comes forward with the baby's daddy, Peter Bondavich (the movie director - playing himself). It's another instance of Eli trying to take down the lady. Except here - Eli stumbles upon something that could upend all his political aspirations for Peter - turns out that someone has sent a tape of Eli's men fixing the Governor election to the Chicago Tribune. A reporter friend calls Eli and shows him the tape, asking for a quote. Eli is speechless.
3. Damian - is attempting to outmaneuver Kalinda or at the very least take her down a notch with his female cop friend. He hires the female cop friend, who has become Kalinda's lover to follow her. Then he has her spy on Kalinda. Kalinda figures it out and calls her on it, and the cop tells Kalinda that she values friends over lovers, and Damien is a friend and not to make her choose between them. Damien in this scenario wins. But not quite, since Kalinda sort of breaks things off with the lady cop.
The copyright infringement suit in of itself is rather clever. Rebel Kane recorded the first version. The Band made their own cover, which is a sort of gentle parody of Rebel Kane's. And the Show "Drama Club" did a similar cover to The Band's on their tv series.
Alicia and Carey initially argue on the basis of derivative rights - that the Band owned a derivative copyright in the work and Drama Club owes them money for stealing their derivative copy.
Will and Preston prove that they had the derivative copyright. And the judge rules that while The Band did create the original derivative cover, the TV show owned an exclusive derivative right - so wins. Unless you can prove that the it was a transformative work or that the TV show stole something that was not protected under the TV Show's derivative copyright. (A clear example of one of the pitfalls of copyright law - which protects the owner of the copyright not the artist. Anyone can buy the rights to something. Whoever buys it first - tends to win. That's why you can sell the film rights to a book but never see a movie made. It can also prevent you from making a movie of your own work. That's why it's a really bad idea to sell exclusive rights and if you do, make sure it is lucrative and only for a specific amount of time.)
Alicia and Carey attempt to prove transformative work - The Band's pre-existing cover was a parody or satire of the original work, therefore it doesn't fall under the derivative work but under transformative work. And the Band holds the copyright.
Unfortunately, Rebel Kane's song is also a satire. Which means they didn't transform it in any real way. The lyrics are the same and the melody doesn't act as true transformation, just a derivative (new medium).
Alicia requests that Robin do some research and see if she can find anything that supports the theory that it is a parody or transformative work on the internet. Instead Robin discovers that the TV Show in setting up tracks to be downloaded in Sweden and other countries - transferred the tracks from The Band's video, because they didn't have time to create their own track. As a result, bowling pins, and other added effects specific to the Band's video and the Band's cover are heard on the TV Show's track. The Band's video track including the bowling pins is not a derivative work and that's clearly theft.
The copyright law case is an example of Goliath vs. David - with the TV show vs. the tiny two man band, two niave artists who know zip about all of this, and by extension the Goliath Lockhardt/Gardner vs. David (Florick/Argos). Copyright unfortunately is often a battle between Goliath's and David's - because it is expensive to defend and often lengthy. Most David's back off quickly or give up. Corporations, publishing company's, television networks, etc - have teams of lawyers who fight this stuff daily. Or can hire them. The little David's can't. Also they have copyright specialists - who basically just handle these sorts of issues. The unrepresented artist is often screwed as a result. Copyright Law ironically often acts against the artists' best interest - as depicted here. Yet, these artist's had a good defense, so came out on top.
In addition the copyright case depicts why copyright law is important. Little known artists, without copyright law, would be taken advantage of - and lose their songs to big corporate interests - such as Drama Club.
Some shows have battles with bullets, the Good Wife has its battle with words.
Like the majority of the episodes this season, it was deftly layered. But I particularly enjoyed the deft depiction of the complex nature of copyright law. And why it's impossible to create an ideal law. At the center of the complexity is a disagreement on what is an original work, what is a transformative work, and a derivative work. You'd think the distinctions are simple. They aren't. The Good Wife portrayed these complexities in a hilarious fashion.
The song was Tricky Dick...a somewhat catchy earworm song by a rapper, Rebel Kane, who had served time in prison with Alicia's husband. But he's not Alicia's client. The client is a band that Alicia and Cary hired for the Xmas party. Portrayed by Mathew Lillard (reminding me a bit too much of the roles he played in the 1980s), and another guy, who I didn't recognize - the band is a two guy band that looks a lot like the guys from FUN (who wrote We Are Young). They basically sing "Americana" or Alternative Folk...and their cover of Tricky Dick is a softer version of the song...or the rap put to a melody. They obtained compulsory rights to record it. (Alicia and Carey get the derivative rights from Rebel Kane after the fact.) They hire Alicia and Carey to sue a television network for stealing their cover version for a tv show called Drama Club- which is basically a teen show about a Talent Show at a Summer Camp. (Which actually exists believe it or not.) The TV's shows version has made 2.3 Million in downloads.
F. Murray Abraham is back as Preston, representing the network. He goes to Lockhardt/Gardner to confront Alicia. (Alicia really needs to let everyone know that she's no longer with Lockhardt/Gardner.) And ends up in a tete-a-tete with Will - who seizes the opportunity to go head-to-head with Alicia - hopefully to beat and humiliate her. (The poor boy's ego has been bruised and he wants to take her down a peg.) Preston reluctantly agrees to let Will co-counsel, even though he doesn't really like him - but as Will puts it, does it matter?
The enemy of your enemy is your friend - ie. they both want to get Alicia.
This brings up the song - which Rebel Kane describes as a joke or poking fun at the guy who wants to take women down a peg. The song describes three men in this episode.
1) Will - who is attempting to take two women, who hurt him, down. The first is Diane, who left the firm and then came back. He's happy she's back - but he wants her to let him lead. Let him be the boss. He doesn't want to share the power. Diane has put a moratorium on all new business ventures until things calm down. Will attempts to overthrow Diane's moratorium by cooking the vote in his direction, using Damian (the shady lawyer that he hired without Diane's permission). Diane confronts Will and he is upfront with her about it - he tells her that instead of questioning his every move, she should use this new determination that he has to her advantage and let him lead the company into new ventures, new risks. Diane backs off.
The second, is Alicia. When Alicia discovers Will has yet again chosen to be opposing counsel on a case that she is litigating, she tells him that he needs to get over it. Every time she turns around - he's opposing her, come on. (Diane for the record more or less has stated the same thing...gently telling Will that he's had a bit of an emotional/psychological break and should ease back a bit - but Will goes on the attack and denies it.) As a result, this doesn't go quite as well. Alicia doesn't back down, and with Robin and Cary's assistance succeeds in taking Will down a few pegs. Will plays dirty pool - deliberately upsetting her game. (He interrupts her flow of questioning with repetitive objections - a trite but true litigation tactic). Alicia takes Cary's advice and finds a way to distract Will. She wears the same suit that he first banged her in (her words). Which works brilliantly. Will sees her in it - and can only think about them having sex in the elevator. (Considering Will seems to think of sex every time he looks at Alicia, and appears to only think of her as a sexual object or animal - this isn't hard to do. He is in regards to Alicia, the Tricky Dick of the song. In fact the song is in effect about Alicia and Will.)
2. Eli - Eli gets it into his head that Marilyn may be pregnant with Peter Florick's kid. He hires Kalinda to investigate Marilyn. He uses Alicia to get Kalinda to agree - stating he knows she can be discrete and keep Alicia from finding out. Kalinda discovers evidence that the kid may in fact be Peter Florick's but isn't sure. The writer's play on the popular name - Peter - and how many people have that name. Eli pushes Marilyn, who finally comes forward with the baby's daddy, Peter Bondavich (the movie director - playing himself). It's another instance of Eli trying to take down the lady. Except here - Eli stumbles upon something that could upend all his political aspirations for Peter - turns out that someone has sent a tape of Eli's men fixing the Governor election to the Chicago Tribune. A reporter friend calls Eli and shows him the tape, asking for a quote. Eli is speechless.
3. Damian - is attempting to outmaneuver Kalinda or at the very least take her down a notch with his female cop friend. He hires the female cop friend, who has become Kalinda's lover to follow her. Then he has her spy on Kalinda. Kalinda figures it out and calls her on it, and the cop tells Kalinda that she values friends over lovers, and Damien is a friend and not to make her choose between them. Damien in this scenario wins. But not quite, since Kalinda sort of breaks things off with the lady cop.
The copyright infringement suit in of itself is rather clever. Rebel Kane recorded the first version. The Band made their own cover, which is a sort of gentle parody of Rebel Kane's. And the Show "Drama Club" did a similar cover to The Band's on their tv series.
Alicia and Carey initially argue on the basis of derivative rights - that the Band owned a derivative copyright in the work and Drama Club owes them money for stealing their derivative copy.
Will and Preston prove that they had the derivative copyright. And the judge rules that while The Band did create the original derivative cover, the TV show owned an exclusive derivative right - so wins. Unless you can prove that the it was a transformative work or that the TV show stole something that was not protected under the TV Show's derivative copyright. (A clear example of one of the pitfalls of copyright law - which protects the owner of the copyright not the artist. Anyone can buy the rights to something. Whoever buys it first - tends to win. That's why you can sell the film rights to a book but never see a movie made. It can also prevent you from making a movie of your own work. That's why it's a really bad idea to sell exclusive rights and if you do, make sure it is lucrative and only for a specific amount of time.)
Alicia and Carey attempt to prove transformative work - The Band's pre-existing cover was a parody or satire of the original work, therefore it doesn't fall under the derivative work but under transformative work. And the Band holds the copyright.
Unfortunately, Rebel Kane's song is also a satire. Which means they didn't transform it in any real way. The lyrics are the same and the melody doesn't act as true transformation, just a derivative (new medium).
Alicia requests that Robin do some research and see if she can find anything that supports the theory that it is a parody or transformative work on the internet. Instead Robin discovers that the TV Show in setting up tracks to be downloaded in Sweden and other countries - transferred the tracks from The Band's video, because they didn't have time to create their own track. As a result, bowling pins, and other added effects specific to the Band's video and the Band's cover are heard on the TV Show's track. The Band's video track including the bowling pins is not a derivative work and that's clearly theft.
The copyright law case is an example of Goliath vs. David - with the TV show vs. the tiny two man band, two niave artists who know zip about all of this, and by extension the Goliath Lockhardt/Gardner vs. David (Florick/Argos). Copyright unfortunately is often a battle between Goliath's and David's - because it is expensive to defend and often lengthy. Most David's back off quickly or give up. Corporations, publishing company's, television networks, etc - have teams of lawyers who fight this stuff daily. Or can hire them. The little David's can't. Also they have copyright specialists - who basically just handle these sorts of issues. The unrepresented artist is often screwed as a result. Copyright Law ironically often acts against the artists' best interest - as depicted here. Yet, these artist's had a good defense, so came out on top.
In addition the copyright case depicts why copyright law is important. Little known artists, without copyright law, would be taken advantage of - and lose their songs to big corporate interests - such as Drama Club.
Some shows have battles with bullets, the Good Wife has its battle with words.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-07 06:55 am (UTC)To the extent that Eli is running over Marilyn, he's doing so out of protective paranoia. While the possibility of sex is what sets this on edge, and gender isn't irrelevant, Marilyn suffers mostly from being in Eli's path. He's proven to be an equal opportunity offender - mostly blind to anything other than servicing Peter's rise in politics, with the exception of his soft sport for Alicia. Goliath, in this case, is mostly oblivious to David.
I'm pretty sure Damian isn't paying the cop. As far as I can tell, she's tailing Kalinda at his behest out of loyalty.
I do think it's to the shows credit that the show isn't making entirely identical cases in its parallel stories. The parallel still is about Officers (of the law, of the state, of the court) abusing their power and role to serve outside interests.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 12:21 am (UTC)I was actually thinking of Eli's reactions to Marilyn over the last several episodes...which have been a sort of odd power play, and rather sexist in some respects.
* When threatened by her in the first two episodes of S5, Eli maneuvers to have her moved away to another position - with the excuse that Peter has eyes for her, and it would be safer to move her away from Peter.
Marilyn gets the upper hand however, showing that Peter's actions could be considered circumspect, and Peter moves her back.
* The latest is the baby, which Eli has issues with...and has become paranoid about.
It's played to comic effect, but does underline gender politics in the work environment - and in a rather subtle and realistic manner.
Agree on everything else.