Last week, I got a copy of Negativland’s new art-work: No Business. If you don’t know, Negativland is a band of muscians and a band of copyright activists who have been at the front of the copyright fight for 25 years– they were my first exposure to ideas about fair use and copyright. No Business is a music CD, a music video, a 50 page book, and short summary of the above in the form of: a whoopie cushion with a copyright logo on it. It is a multi-dimensional assault on the corporate copyright mentality.

The included book is an art and artist-centric examination of the intellectual foundation and history of copyright in the pre- and post- digital age. To summarize, allow me to steal a passage from No Business, in the way that writers have always done, but musicians are prohibited from: “We would like to see copyright law acknowledge the logical and inalienable right of artists, rather than publishers or manufacturers, to determine what new art will consist of.”

Yesterday, Negtivland released a wonderful video for the song “No Business”, which is on the CD by the same name, within the package that is also by the same name: No Business Video. Here’s a direct link to the torrent.

All together, No Business is a must have for artists or art fans who are thinking about copyright, the internet, and what it means for creativity. You can get it direct from the artists, in all its copyright-violating glory right here.

Update: also check out this Negativland interview in The Onion.