Unamed Author "Grey Tuesday" Tech Law Advisor February 14, 2004 - March 5, 2004

This piece highlights the battle between DJ Danger Mouse and EMI Records for the creation of The Grey Album, a musical work that samples both Jay-Z's The Black Album and The Beatles' The White Album. Capital Records, owners of The Beatles' works issued a statement before the album was released warning DJ Danger Mouse of his copyright infringement of their songs. Even though he had not officially released it, the album had time to circulate. Danger Mouse did not receive the proper permission from Capital Records and agreed to stop distribution of the album, but it had already leaked to too many sources. This caused an infamous day as the hip hop community rebelled against copyright law itself on "Grey Tuesday", where many sites would allow the album to be downloaded and distributed in order to "force reforms to copyright law that can make sampling legal."

This is a notable event because on top of it being a public outcry against copyright law and favoring hip hop sampling, it also provides a scenario where the one that created the infringing product agrees to stop his actions, but the public continues, thus making him liable for their actions. Danger Mouse was asked to identify everyone it had distributed the album to and account for all of units distributed, which is virtually impossible to do. The hip hop community clearly realizes that copyright law regarding sampling of music is hurting the art. Attacking a DJ that created an album which was clearly doing to be an underground project was the last straw. While most of the sources I have used make comments about how certain cases affect the rap industry itself, it is important to consider the fans responses to legislation. If the uproar is consistent and loud enough, then maybe a change will be made to the law.