Jonathan Coulton and Glee

For those of you who may not have heard about it, Jonathan Coulton is a guy who writes humorous, quirky, nerdy songs and has some decent internet fame. If you play video games, you've heard his song, "Still Alive" from the end credits from "Portal," as well as other songs in the Portal series.

Several years ago, he got authorization from the original writer to write a cover of "Baby Got Back" and release it on an album. Coulton wrote an entirely new slowed-down acoustic arrangement for it, and it's pretty amusing.



A couple of weeks ago, an episode of "Glee" aired with a "Baby Got Back" cover and it's identical to Coulton's arrangement. It even includes lyrics he re-wrote that make it quite clear they lifted it wholesale from his version ("Johnny C's in trouble, beggin' for a piece of that bubble).



Coulton was never consulted about it, the Fox network never credited him, and Fox is completely brushing him off about it. Fox said something about how they're giving him free exposure, despite the fact that they never mentioned anything about using Coulton's arrangement or credited him in any way. Coulton doesn't have much legal leg to stand on, as copyright law regarding the arrangement itself pretty much says they can do it as long as they got permission from the original writer (which they did). If they did lift audio straight from his arrangement, and that's being researched, then Coulton might have grounds to sue.

In the meantime, Coulton did something hilarious that I just heard about. He re-released his song and put it up on iTunes, Amazon, and Google, but changed the title to "Baby Got Back (In the Style of Glee)" and he's giving the proceeds to charity. http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2013/01/26/baby-got-back-glee-style/

I hope he manages to sue that show into complete oblivion

This is why I hate TV. And popular music.

Also, this isn't the first time Glee has ripped off a lesser known artist, according to something I read that I forgot the details on.

I watch Glee with the wife. It's not that bad of a show, but I have heard that the creators expect musicians and bands to want their music on the show. I believe Dave Grohl told them to go fuck themselves.

It's also crazy that the creators made American Horror Story.

SBF wrote:I believe Dave Grohl told them to go fuck themselves.