There’s a lovely little story going around, about a band called 7 seconds of love.
They’re very today, they even have a myspace site;
They’re very yesterday, they play ska;
They’re very tomorrow, they’re unsigned.
Somehow a 2005 hit of theirs got copied lock stock and barrel. Seriously plagiarised. Not just the tune, but the characters and costumes in the video as well.
They were not happy. They complained to the head office of the company that did the plagiarising. And the company gracefully apologised and settled out of court. The band gave some of the proceeds to charity, and said they would spend the rest on themselves.
So far so good. What makes this a parable for our times?
The plagiarism apparently took place in Argentina, where the theme and the tune were used for a TV ad.
So how did the band find out? Fans of theirs, fans they didn’t know they had, left comments on the YouTube clip.
Wow.
Linus’s Law in operation. Given enough eyeballs……
[An aside: Their music might not be to everyone’s taste, but do take a look at their web site. Why? Here’s an extract from their “bio”
At the dawn of the new millennium a revolution was underway which would change the world for ever.
Joel and Alex Veitch from rathergood.com were men on a mission. Men wild-eyed with the crazed pursuit of their obsession. Men who loved the moon, U-Boats and Zeppelins. But above all else, men who loved kittens. Kittens.. OF ROCK!
Their mission to subjugate the world to the utopian kitteny vision of the future was well underway, but there was one ingredient missing. And that missing ingredient was…… the unstoppable, unbelievable power of rocksteady skanking ska punk pop beats.
Unbeknownst to them, at the same time four battle-hardened, bloodied and weary gaijin Warriors Of Rock staggered from Japan to the shores of Great Britain. Exactly like the Seven Samurai, but with less Samurais.
And less swords
And more musical instruments. (And also they weren’t actually Japanese like the 7 Samurai were)……
Nuff said.