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Post by Amazing Kitsune on Oct 1, 2016 22:50:53 GMT -5
WWE Network is now removing any footage of wrestlers singing copyrighted songs on old episodes of Raw and Smackdown. WWE has been replacing entrance music or music used in video packages for years, but this is the first time they have started cutting out footage of wrestlers singing the words to popular songs. In particular, the March 12, 2012 Raw episode isn't on the Network (all other 2012 Raws are) solely because for the entire show, they hyped a concert from The Rock at the end of the night. WWE now can't / won't air that segment on the Network because of all the singing, so they've just skipped the entire episode.
--F4wonline
What other moments will this affect?
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wildojinx
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Post by wildojinx on Oct 1, 2016 22:57:50 GMT -5
Havent they been doing this for a while?
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Oct 1, 2016 23:28:28 GMT -5
Yeah, this isn't anything new. It sucks though, because they were some genuinely funny moments like Santino's parody of Rehab that have been completely edited off, or the WWE Idol stuff.
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wildojinx
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Post by wildojinx on Oct 1, 2016 23:34:58 GMT -5
Speaking of this, there was a 2002 RAW that had Union Underground performing Across the Nation live. I wonder if that segment is still on there, as Across the Nation was written specifically for the WWE.
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CH Punk
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Post by CH Punk on Oct 1, 2016 23:46:35 GMT -5
Just checked, the go-home Raw for Survivor Series 2001 is completely butchered. Originally Rock and Austin started singing Margaritaville and then Rock catches him with a surprise Rock Bottom to end the show. In this version, Austin starts setting up the singing segment and, when he asks for the crowd to stop chanting "What?", it awkwardly cuts to Rock giving him the Rock Bottom.
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Oct 1, 2016 23:53:32 GMT -5
Yeah, this isn't anything new. It sucks though, because they were some genuinely funny moments like Santino's parody of Rehab that have been completely edited off, or the WWE Idol stuff. Don't forget them cutting up one of the greatest Raw segments ever, the Austin Rock segment on the go home Raw for Survivor Series 2001. Just checked, the go-home Raw for Survivor Series 2001 is completely butchered. Originally Rock and Austin started singing Margaritaville and then Rock catches him with a surprise Rock Bottom to end the show. In this version, Austin starts setting up the singing segment and, when he asks for the crowd to stop chanting "What?", it awkwardly cuts to Rock giving him the Rock Bottom. Originally Rock didn't interrupt Austin, they got through the song and were acting all buddy buddy, when Rock said "By the way, The Rock will never ever forget." And then, Rock Bottom.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Oct 2, 2016 0:52:13 GMT -5
Speaking of this, there was a 2002 RAW that had Union Underground performing Across the Nation live. I wonder if that segment is still on there, as Across the Nation was written specifically for the WWE. Yup, they own all the rights to the song, so it should come as no surprise that the live performance is fully intact on that Raw (September 23rd, 2002, if you're curious).
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Post by MAD TITAN on Oct 2, 2016 17:45:44 GMT -5
I haven't gone back to check but do they cut out Rock singing SmackDown Hotel?
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Paco
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Post by Paco on Oct 4, 2016 3:28:38 GMT -5
I knew this was the case since last year where The New Day had their star-making (and downright babyface turning) version of Empire State of Mind at SummerSlam 2015.
I checked out the replay almost immediately just for that...and it was gone.
Boooo!
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And Eee
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Post by And Eee on Oct 4, 2016 4:07:59 GMT -5
Would have thought Santino's Rehab would have been OK. I'm no legal expert but wouldn't that be classed as a parody? For all I know I'm wrong.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Oct 4, 2016 6:30:24 GMT -5
Would have thought Santino's Rehab would have been OK. I'm no legal expert but wouldn't that be classed as a parody? For all I know I'm wrong. It'd probably qualify, given it would be considered transformative, with the changes he made and his butchering through broken English, but I imagine WWE figured it was just not worth the headache.
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Post by doinkmark on Oct 4, 2016 11:33:38 GMT -5
WWE is probably just not taking chances, even with stuff that's clearly parody, given the other Network-related lawsuits they're dealing with at the moment. Here are a few other things that could be affected:
The Oddities, I'm guessing, will have cut or overdubbed entrances if they don't already.
What about Jericho's band Fozzy? They've done some stuff with WWE before but obviously Jericho's on good terms with the company still.
No more X-Factor theme? :/ Or was that done specifically for WWE?
What about ABA Undertaker's Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit themes?
The other Rock Concert where he disses Vickie Guerrero is a favorite of mine and I'll be sad to see it go. I believe that segment was in the middle of the show though and so it could be edited out more easily than the "main event" Rock Concerts.
CRAP! What about the segments in the inVasion where Austin played guitar?! A big part of the angle was done backstage with Vince singing the Welcome Back Kotter theme. Don't tell me that's getting chopped up too. That was one of the few bright spots of the whole inVasion.
What're they doing for CM Punk at the moment? Isn't he one of the people suing for royalties? Between that and the fear that musicians may come after them for entrance themes I can see WWE cutting out a lot of his stuff.
There was a WWECW episode that started with everyone singing Hootie And The Blowfish for some reason. That may get chopped up or cut out completely.
The Master P WCW angle. It still works without the concerts and rap entrance theme, I guess. Rap Is Crap should be safe.
No more KISS Demon segment?
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Post by wingedeagle on Oct 5, 2016 5:45:52 GMT -5
WWE is retarded.
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TheDieselTrain
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Post by TheDieselTrain on Nov 2, 2016 7:40:56 GMT -5
I found another one which is kinda disappointing. on SD! 2005 the same ep. where Hassan's "terrorists" show up......... after the Mexicools jumped Matt Morgan and triple baseball slide him out of the ring Juvi got on the mic and said oops I did it again and the other 2 danced which was the funniest thing about that segment.
Its been totally edited out
BOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Nov 2, 2016 16:53:57 GMT -5
WWE is probably just not taking chances, even with stuff that's clearly parody, given the other Network-related lawsuits they're dealing with at the moment. Here are a few other things that could be affected: The Oddities, I'm guessing, will have cut or overdubbed entrances if they don't already.Yup, overdubbed. No more X-Factor theme? :/ Or was that done specifically for WWE?They had different themes before and after Uncle Kracker, but the Uncle Kracker one itself (which was not made for WWE) is overdubbed. What about ABA Undertaker's Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit themes?ABA is overdubbed with You're Gonna Pay. Limp Bizkit is left intact. The other Rock Concert where he disses Vickie Guerrero is a favorite of mine and I'll be sad to see it go. I believe that segment was in the middle of the show though and so it could be edited out more easily than the "main event" Rock Concerts.Yup, gone, sadly. CRAP! What about the segments in the inVasion where Austin played guitar?! A big part of the angle was done backstage with Vince singing the Welcome Back Kotter theme. Don't tell me that's getting chopped up too. That was one of the few bright spots of the whole inVasion.Unfortunately, you're correct. "Wing Beneath Our Ring" from after Summerslam 2001 is also gone, as well as Rock and Austin singing on the go-home Raw for Survivor Series that year. What're they doing for CM Punk at the moment? Isn't he one of the people suing for royalties? Between that and the fear that musicians may come after them for entrance themes I can see WWE cutting out a lot of his stuff.So far, no cuts. This Fire Burns and Cult of Personality are both fully intact. There was a WWECW episode that started with everyone singing Hootie And The Blowfish for some reason. That may get chopped up or cut out completely.No WWECW on the Network yet, but most likely that will happen. No more KISS Demon segment?The KISS concert that introduced the Demon has been cut, but shockingly, I watched another Nitro where God of Thunder was fully intact for his entrance. I'm guessing it's an oversight that will soon be corrected.
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Post by Martin: #TeamBella Treasurer on Nov 2, 2016 18:12:26 GMT -5
They gonna cut Trevor Murdoch singing Kenny Rogers and Garth Brooks??
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chazraps
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Post by chazraps on Nov 2, 2016 18:15:24 GMT -5
Would have thought Santino's Rehab would have been OK. I'm no legal expert but wouldn't that be classed as a parody? For all I know I'm wrong. It'd probably qualify, given it would be considered transformative, with the changes he made and his butchering through broken English, but I imagine WWE figured it was just not worth the headache. It's not parody, it's satire, which is not protected. If it were Santino parodying the original song directly, it would be parody. If it's changing the lyrics to something unrelated to the song to make a point, it's satire. The reason "Weird" Al falls under parody laws is because sonically when the lyrics are about an unrelated subject, the structure of his verses are formulated in the structure of the song.
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chazraps
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Post by chazraps on Nov 2, 2016 18:37:00 GMT -5
Alright, time for a quick lesson on owning a song and what the WWE exactly owns.
Every single song you've ever heard has two facets of legal ownership: the recording and the publishing.
The recording is the literal sounds you hear or video you see.
The publishing is the composition of the song: the lyrics, sheet music, etc.
To air/play/distribute any use of any song, you need rights/permission/agreements of BOTH.
WWE may own the footage of a band performing, but they don't own the publishing. To air that on the network would cost extra. Even if the band loved WWE and said they could have it for free, they can't or else right termination from their publishing's parent company (ASCAP/EMI/SONY ATV/etc.) as that's their bread and butter or protection and ownership. Across the board, the lowest these ever go for are $200 for online only with a limited window of time for a charity cause. That's for like a month's use of a non-profit. WWE would have to pay no matter what, so they don't.
Since 2002 at the beginning of the decline of the music industry, WWE has purchased publishing for artists they've brought in to record songs outright. That's why roughly everything from the release of Forcible Entry onward has remained. They're Jim Johnson compositions, and often are the result of him sending a reference track of how he envisions the song to an artist, and them sending it back with their own twist. No matter how much they add, it's all owned by Stephanie Music Publishing.
It's taken a while for WWE to really pay attention to publishing, as the industry didn't quite realize how valuable they were until post-9/11 when declining sales and piracy made publishing deals where most artists make their biggest amount of royalties. Like most major entertainment in the companies in the 80s, they hired a bunch of songwriters to write music around the time of The Wrestling Album. That's why you have outlier like "Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy" which was written by three for-hire songwriters who still hold the publishing rights to this very day. Unless WWE pays them, you'll never hear it again unless it's on an original television broadcast, as plenty of those deals tend to go. Once in a while you'll get an exception like a 3 second clip for a Royal Rumble entrance, but that's largely oversight, same with the heartbeat noise from Nine Ince Nails' "Closer" you hear with the "Extreme Replay" graphic on mid-90s ECW Hardcore TV episodes.
If a wrestler sings a song, that's in all likelihood an unauthorized performance that they can't distribute. Like I wrote in the post above, it would have to follow a strict set of guidelines to count as parody and not infringing on a copyrighted song.
I have no idea why Living Colour is still intact, but if i had to venture a guess, being Punk changed his theme at the height of 2011 and publishing deals being airtight, a licensing deal was probably struck for longterm use across all mediums in perpetuity for 5-10 years or so.
Hope this helped.
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Post by Ozman on Jan 6, 2017 13:54:46 GMT -5
Alright, time for a quick lesson on owning a song and what the WWE exactly owns. Every single song you've ever heard has two facets of legal ownership: the recording and the publishing. The recording is the literal sounds you hear or video you see. The publishing is the composition of the song: the lyrics, sheet music, etc. To air/play/distribute any use of any song, you need rights/permission/agreements of BOTH. WWE may own the footage of a band performing, but they don't own the publishing. To air that on the network would cost extra. Even if the band loved WWE and said they could have it for free, they can't or else right termination from their publishing's parent company (ASCAP/EMI/SONY ATV/etc.) as that's their bread and butter or protection and ownership. Across the board, the lowest these ever go for are $200 for online only with a limited window of time for a charity cause. That's for like a month's use of a non-profit. WWE would have to pay no matter what, so they don't. Since 2002 at the beginning of the decline of the music industry, WWE has purchased publishing for artists they've brought in to record songs outright. That's why roughly everything from the release of Forcible Entry onward has remained. They're Jim Johnson compositions, and often are the result of him sending a reference track of how he envisions the song to an artist, and them sending it back with their own twist. No matter how much they add, it's all owned by Stephanie Music Publishing. It's taken a while for WWE to really pay attention to publishing, as the industry didn't quite realize how valuable they were until post-9/11 when declining sales and piracy made publishing deals where most artists make their biggest amount of royalties. Like most major entertainment in the companies in the 80s, they hired a bunch of songwriters to write music around the time of The Wrestling Album. That's why you have outlier like "Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy" which was written by three for-hire songwriters who still hold the publishing rights to this very day. Unless WWE pays them, you'll never hear it again unless it's on an original television broadcast, as plenty of those deals tend to go. Once in a while you'll get an exception like a 3 second clip for a Royal Rumble entrance, but that's largely oversight, same with the heartbeat noise from Nine Ince Nails' "Closer" you hear with the "Extreme Replay" graphic on mid-90s ECW Hardcore TV episodes. If a wrestler sings a song, that's in all likelihood an unauthorized performance that they can't distribute. Like I wrote in the post above, it would have to follow a strict set of guidelines to count as parody and not infringing on a copyrighted song. I have no idea why Living Colour is still intact, but if i had to venture a guess, being Punk changed his theme at the height of 2011 and publishing deals being airtight, a licensing deal was probably struck for longterm use across all mediums in perpetuity for 5-10 years or so. Hope this helped. So glad that you posted this. Being in the radio business, I know all about publishing and broadcast rights for music. People seem to think that WWE can just throw a check at any and everyone and somehow stay in business.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 6, 2017 13:59:40 GMT -5
I was at the Rock Concert live and always wanted to check that episode out again. I guess this means the cool segment where the Rock and Austin sang together during the Invasion will be gone.
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