Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has long been an advocate of fans remixing the band's songs. A few years back, he even persuaded his label, Universal Music Group, to let him post master recordings on his official website for fans to remix.
It was a bold move, as Reznor supplied fans with the individual files making up the tracks. This allowed a true remix, rather than simply manipulating the song's released version.
An album of 'celebrity' remixes was even released in November 2007 but now, after Reznor decided to post fan remixes at the official NIN website, Universal have stopped him. Why? Because Universal is suing YouTube and MySpace, as the label wants to be alerted by copyright owners when a user posts something copyrighted (rather than having to screen every song and video before it appears). And because future NIN remixes could feature copyright music samples that Universal do not own, the label has decided they can't officially support Reznor anymore.
On the NIN site Reznor wrote, "Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for... we are challenged at the last second to find a way of bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other's feet. We have a cool and innovative site ready to launch but we're currently scratching our heads as to how to proceed."
Go to the NIN remix site for more.
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