Copyright fight over the digits of pi

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mike · 5147 days ago

Michael Blake from Portland Oregon took the digits of pi, translated them to notes, and wrote a simple melody he posted on YouTube. He is now being sued by another composer, Erick Larsen of Omaha, who claims that only he has the right to record pi music.

A few more links on the story:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/14/134492882/how-to-transform-the...

http://www.coetail.asia/jenanderson/2011/03/27/pi-fight/

and the legal case filing: http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nebraska/nedce/8:2011cv0012...

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mike · 5139 days ago · link ·

I've traded several emails with Lars looking for his side of the story. He claims to not be opposed to people creating pi music, but objects that Michael Blake has used a similar coding (C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, etc. (my god, the simplest coding you can do)) and included chord codings also (C major = 1, D major = 2, etc. (ummm... not so hard either)). In Blake's video, he describes the encoding, and the chord encoding also, and Lars thinks that this is a direct rip-off of his video.

We had a good conversation until I asked why he thought Blake's composition was so similar to his, when they are not only structured differently, sound different, and presented differently. I asked what Blake had done to tick him off. I've gotten no reply.

I can really only conclude that Lars has an inflated view of his own work, and this is perhaps tinged with jealously that Blake's became rapidly popular, landing him spots on NPR and millions of YouTube hits.

Here's Blake's killer version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOQb_mtkEEE

Lars' video he claims Blake copied: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNlaxpD0zY

You can compare! Vi Hart's response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtLSLCJKHE&feature=relat...

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mk · 5146 days ago · link ·

Just very uncool and greedy of Lars.

It reminds me of the attempt to patent genes. But, the fight is not over yet: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-court-appeal-key-gene-pa... Both pi and genes are naturally occuring.

Few things can stir up nonsense like a legal system.

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greedo · 5147 days ago · link ·

There should be common sense judges that quickly filter out crap like this. Lars is mistaking copyrighting his pi song with copyrighting all songs about pi. That is like copyrighting all songs about love. What a jerk.

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steve · 5146 days ago · link ·

I actually copywrighted the use of "What a jerk" in the comments section of any website or forumn... so pony up Greedo!