Grey Tuesday

Grey Album is a mash up album of Jay-Z and The Beatles made by Danger Mouse. Grey Tuesday was an online protest that was led by Downhill Battle (DB) to distribute the Grey Album online on a Tuesday, the 24^th of Feb 2004. This was intended to protest against EMI’s (The Beatles copyright holders) desire to terminate the Grey Album due to copyright infringement. It was a successful protest with over 170 sites that hosted it and over 100,000 copies downloaded that day.

Grey Tuesday is an act of civil disobedience. Danger Mouse did not intend to disobey the laws or the original artists.  I personally have no problem with the album itself, I think EMI should be flattered. On the other hand everyone has different views and EMI did not give Danger Mouse or DB the permission to use their music nor to use it as a sample. Being inspired by an artist work is a personal matter and using that artist personal work is considered stealing and is against the copyright laws. The fact that this album went viral in a non-harmful matter makes it a civil disobedience but I still don’t think it was the right thing to do.