"I have recently viewed one of your video productions (to wit The Iraq Campaign 1991, a copy of which I now offer, with the Court's permission, as Exhibit A), and in the name of the People of the State of California I now ask how you managed to obtain permission from the copyright holders for all that audio and video material clearly stolen from television and movies, and by the way, where were you at 9:00pm on the night of August 21, 1996."

The producer responds:

Hamilton, you ignorant slut... that material wasn't stolen, it was sampled (or appropriated, or found, or cited, different people use different verbs). Semantics aside, it is a time-honored cultural and artistic technique, employed in various art media, of collage and deconstruction, or recontextualization, of the popular culture, using its own output. "Sampling" is the more current and perhaps most accurate and inert term, its usage as such increasing in this era of Digital Media.

But whatever era, Digital or its electromagnetic predecessors, Taped and Broadcast... and in whatever medium - electronic, visual, print, and so on... it all adds up to the Culture.

The Culture is not really a thing in itself, Hamilton, it's an amalgam of the entire visual and aural cacophony that surrounds us 24 hours a day, every day of our lives. Most everyone, myself included, finds something there to enjoy. But it is subject to scrutiny, all the more imperative for something so pervasive and influential, even propagandistic. And it is its own best illustration and evidence... therefore sampling distinct pieces directly from the amalgam is the best way to observe, explain, parodize and criticize different aspects (if not the whole lump itself) of the Culture and the civilization it all too well represents.

Now much of it, particularly the electronic media I concern myself with, is designed not so much to entertain/inform, but rather to deliver the audience to the waiting open outstretched arms of the sponsors, all of whom are able to afford $300,000 (plus the costs of production and ad agencies) for the chance to seduce their target demographic for 30 seconds. To the extent of that seduction is the extent of my observation, concern, and criticism. To the extent that it's subtle and insidious is the extent to which I must make it blatant, brazen, and offensive.

To the extent self-serving, misleading, and deliberately manipulative psychological associations are made (and not just through advertising) is the extent I will break those associations, since they are subjective, and therefore rightly subject to counter-assault (and I don't want any corporation or institution to be like a beloved member of my family).

To the extent I see the mass media culture drag standards of intelligence, creativity and ethics down to the lowest common denominator... and then turn around and generate more slick and profitable news programming bemoaning the resulting deterioration in our streets, schools and elective offices (not to mention our art and civilization), that's the extent I will point my own electromagnetic finger.

To the extent history is expediently rewritten or forgotten is the extent I will remind and set the record straight. To the extent the politics, philosophies, and fortunes of those in positions of power and greed are promoted, by the very media they own, against the better interests of those they deceive and delude, is the extent I will pollute the product of their capital investment.

To the extent it all dazzles the eyes and promotes the short attention span is the extent I will mimic its superficial style, reconstitute its audiovisual bites, and throw them back in its face.

And to the extent the mass media culture infects, replaces, and trivializes the reality, variety, and genuineness of life with a monolithic consumerist fantasy is the extent I will expose its cold and calculating charade and make it even more unreal and grotesque.

Well now... what all this comes under, quite simply, is the right of free expression.

And the way that right is exercised, by myself and many others in this particular deconstructive niche, is bound to come up against the property rights (i.e. "intellectual") claimed by so many enormous corporations with enormous legal departments. When these rights come into conflict, which do you think should get priority in America, where Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness was originally written but then rejected as Life, Liberty, and Property?

Well, priority aside, there is in fact a line between the two, and it's called copyright. But that line is deliberately fuzzy, and constantly adjusting... and that's called Fair Use. Fair use has its roots in common law and, all subsequent statutory law aside, these matters continue to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, as even the Supreme Court has recently confirmed. And I would've expected you, Hamilton, as the District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles, to know all this, but if not, you have the right to click the links below.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Burger, I was at home alone at 9:00pm on the night of August 21, 1996, taping the Miss Teen USA pageant, without the sacred permission of the CBS Television Network (your old employer), on the assumption that the Monkees reunion therein might provide some material for my new Nostalgia video. And my lawyer is Perry Mason... so just watch it.

the disclaimer