Kevin Reynolds' music copyright problem (is there a precedent for this?)

I think it's easy to miss. I love Joe Hisaishi's music, but I didn't know he was prickly about people using his music until months ago when I read about Yuzuru doing the most to get Hisaishi's permission. Like others said, other skaters have used it before without issue. I thought Yuzuru was only going the extra mile because he didn't just want Hisaishi's permission but his blessing and Yuzuru was just being ultra respectful.
 
Someone should skate to just a recording of edges cutting into the ice. Start with the sound of just one skater's blades, and gradually add more skaters until suddenly the rink is filled with the sounds of blades, (literally) carving out a melody.

Actually, I started that off facetiously, but now I think that would be kind of awesome.
 
screech said:
Someone should skate to just a recording of edges cutting into the ice. Start with the sound of just one skater's blades, and gradually add more skaters until suddenly the rink is filled with the sounds of blades, (literally) carving out a melody.

Actually, I started that off facetiously, but now I think that would be kind of awesome.
Click to expand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCapfwISfAU
 
LilJen said:
Exactly. What IS music, anyway???
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Was it Glenn Gould who did a recording that was just everyday sounds? I can't think of the name of it, so I can't find it anywhere, but I don't think I'm making it up...
And hey, if people can make music based on or around the sounds of typewriters or or swarms of bumblebees, Then really anything can be music (I kind of want someone to skate to Hot Butter's 'Popcorn').
 
Sylvia said:
Starting a new thread from Tony's post in Canadian Men's news because this last-minute development makes me :mad: & :confused: (how has this not happened before?):

Posted by Reynolds today: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpmrCofnBtP/?hl=en&taken-by=kevin.reynolds
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Wow... I thought it was so funny he was skating to music to a video game I played way back in the 90’s. He’s a true RPG gamer at heart! Love it! But it’s really sad that he has to give up his entire FS. Maybe the game is too new.
 
I thought Ni No Kuni was a fairly recent game but I see now that it came out 8 years ago.

ETA: I'm behind the times. The one I was thinking about, the first big title, came out five years ago and the latest one came out this year.
 
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There's a recording of Claire de Lune out there just waiting for someone to skate to it! ;)
 
gkelly said:
Lu Chen 1994, SP Clair de Lune, FS Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi ;)
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I was actually thinking of Guignard and Fabbri's "Three Seconds in Helsinki" improvised tango version. Regardless, some Debussy, a nice short haircut, and a tasteful costume would do Kevin Reynolds a world of good. :)
 
To answer the original question: In terms of copyright claim I don't think we've had this exact situation before, however it's not unprecedented for the copyright owner to demand a skater stop using their music. The composer of some of the original music for Dominina/Shabalin's disgusting OD in 2010 told them to stop using her music.
 
nimi said:
IIRC, the previous problems with the right to use Hisaishi pieces might've been mostly about the fact that skaters tend to EDIT the pieces they use for skating. Apparently this doesn't sit well with the maestro (unless it's done really well, à la Yuzu).
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And even Yuzuru's had to go through multiple cuts before the approval came through (after all, if Hisaichi was even vaguely interested in extra exposure/reflected glory, Yuzuru's standing in Japan would have made it easier to get approval than any other skater). The fact that it has to be cut and combined could make the difference to the composer. Which I can understand.

I'm not sure why Reynolds' team didn't get a lock on the permission before now, but maybe the fact that they knew Yuzuru had made them think it would work out...
 
TallyT said:
And even Yuzuru's had to go through multiple cuts before the approval came through (after all, if Hisaichi was even vaguely interested in extra exposure/reflected glory, Yuzuru's standing in Japan would have made it easier to get approval than any other skater). The fact that it has to be cut and combined could make the difference to the composer. Which I can understand.

I'm not sure why Reynolds' team didn't get a lock on the permission before now, but maybe the fact that they knew Yuzuru had made them think it would work out...
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Plenty of people skate to his music without issue, so maybe it was the opposite and he thought he was too low profile for anybody to notice.
 
TallyT said:
I'm not sure why Reynolds' team didn't get a lock on the permission before now, but maybe the fact that they knew Yuzuru had made them think it would work out...
Click to expand...

Maybe they didn't know that Yuzuru had to go through all that to get permission. I certainly didn't and I saw someone else's comment (here? somewhere else?) that they assumed Yuzuru went through all that because he was just being respectful, not that he had to.
 
My current best guess is along the lines of another poster who suggested that this went unnoticed until now because he hadn't done the program in Japan until now. He's low profile enough that whoever handles Hisaishi's copyright didn't notice it was being used until it was listed as program music for NHK trophy.
Japan can be very stringent about enforcing copyright compared to other countries (think about how the channel that broadcasts skating in Japan took down every ISU GP skating video on YouTube via copyright claims around the time of the Olympics this winter). I wonder if this has something to do with them and what they can reasonably air on TV in Japan music-wise?

I also wonder if Kevin didn't know this would be a problem - I mean, obviously he did given that he was surprised about the copyright claim - but it would be hard to believe that he didn't know about Hisaishi's stinginess with music given how small the elite skating community (and the skating music community) is. Maybe he just assumed he'd have no problem since so many other skaters got away with it?
 
Kevin must be very distressed. I would think the fact that 2019 Worlds are in Japan was his major motivator for staying in this season.

They love him in Japan, and I'm sure he wants to deliver special performances there at NHK and Worlds.

So I hope that he and his team come up with an alternative program that is going to work. But there's so little time. :(
 
I don't know why Kevin didn't know about Hisaishi's protectiveness ahead of time, but I feel for him and I really hope this doesn't become a trend. Most skaters don't have anywhere near Yuzuru's money, or anything close to the team Yuzu must have around him to think about this sort of stuff.
 
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