Former Host and Writer of MST3K Launches RiffTrax

dougman writes "Today James Lileks mentioned his 'friend and all-around comic genius/good egg Michael J. Nelson' called, to tell him about his brilliant new project, RiffTrax. Here's the pitch: '...free-lance commentary tracks. Bottom line: Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary for big famous beloved movies like Titanic or The Matrix. The hitch: you have to provide the movie. It's genius: no worries about copyright. You buy the commentary tracks for $1.99, rent the movie or get it out of your collection, load the commentary on your iPod or burn it to a disk, then watch them together in true you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate bliss. ... The first movie is Roadhouse." Cool! I voted for The Matrix as the next one to be riffed." While I (and many others I know) preferred Joel, Mike was not without his share of funny moments too. Without Crow and Servo it just might not be the same, though.

Re:Open Hangar Doors!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing sadder than a slashdotter coming here to tell us he's above it all.

Parody and Criticism exceptions to the code.

[plasmacutter]

Without actually embedding them in video feed youre not reproducing the work

There are also numerous examples and case courses resolved against copyright holders in cases of parody and criticism.

Nelson has a mountain of case law on his side, but youre right, i wouldnt put it past these people.

Re:No worries?

[ClamIAm]

IANAL. However, my completely IANAL-ish opinion is that these are not copyright infringement, and fall in the realm of fair use. I say this because I believe this type of work is nearly the same thing as writing a review of a movie, or posting some facts about a movie.

Most movie reviews are very similar to an additional audio track, save for the fact that one is designed to be synced up to the movie, and the other is written on paper. Reviews often comment on aspects of the film, such as a specific scene or a recurring theme or something. The only real difference an audio track has is, once again, the fact that it is designed to be played along with the film.

Posting facts about a movie is also considered fair use. You can say "this movie is two hours long", or "the lens looks messed up in these scene", and this is not infringement. An audio track seems to be very similar to this.

Other types of media also follow these rules. It is not infringement to say "this painting is ten feet tall", or "Mark Knopfler used a Gibson Les Paul when he recorded 'Money for Nothing'". It is also not infringement to say "Charles Dickens sucks".

There's even prior art: Dark Side of the Moon [wikipedia.org].