Shael Riley

Please note that the party is on Friday the 6th, not the nonexistent Friday the 7th that was originally stated.

Brooklyn Canadia?

You are Probably Invited to My Party! Dear friend, aquantence, or relatively estranged person who is, for reasons lost to the fog of MySpace friend requests long gone-by, receiving this message, Me and Ivy are moving out of our old place in Bed Stuy and into a new one in Williamsburg, where our indy cred is sure to skyrocket; to commemorate this upcoming occasion, we're throwing an all-expenses-paid, booze-bash at our soon-to-be old place and you, dear reader, stand a very good chance of being someone I would like to invite! The party will begin at 5:00 in Friday July 7th and go until everyone leaves, but we can't make any noise after 10:30 for fear of our diligently civic-minded neighbors informing the police that our raucous merry-making is in violation of one of their most championed codes (the code in question being, of course, that of noise ordinance). If you'd like to come, please send an email to shael.riley@gmail.com or a private message to me through MySpace and I'll give you the address, or remind you why I don't like you. If you already know the address, good on you! We have tons of booze and food, so please consider coming empty-handed, but if you'd like to bring something despite my requesting you not, bring a nice tequila, or case of Corona; I've been feeling too sober and not nearly faux mexican enough as of late. Your friend or estranged virtual space cohabitator, -Shael Brendan Riley

And you are (probably) invited! (This) Friday, July 6th, in beautiful (LOLZ!) Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn, from 5:00pm until late into the evening. This party will serve to commemorate my, and Ivy's, upcoming moving out of beautiful Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn and into double-beautiful Williamsburg (which is still in Brooklyn), where our indie cred will skyrocket. We have food and booze like whoa--thank you, Costco--with the notable exception of Corona. Hint hint! Please PM me for my address. All OCReMixers (and listeners) welcome!

Devon a lot? LOL!

I don't think anyone wants the document in question to facilitate a repeat of the mass exodus of 2002, or the the JD Harding situation; that's pretty clear. What you must consider, though, when examining the irrevocable nature of the contract you're going to be held to as a remixer, is that OCR is now given your legally irrevocable permission to distribute your work in as-of-yet unspecified ways; that is, they can do anything they want with your arrangement so long as it is legal and is not explicitly forbidden by the terms of use outlined in the content policy. What could they do with my mix to which I would object? I don't know. I haven't thought of anything yet, as I'm generally interested in disseminating my music--even my older music that might not be representative of my current level of ability--to as many people and through as many channels as possible. Nevertheless, knowing that my music could be disseminated against my will, through some channel I have not yet discovered and will not approve of, makes me uneasy. Not only that, but if, on the off chance, this channel would hold some potential for financial compensation to be given to me for use of my mix, assuming I could work out the details with the copyright holders of the original arrangement, an admittedly unlikely scenario, I would be barred from taking steps towards receiving the money to which I may be entitled. And the same could happen to you, if you are or plan on becoming a contributor. That's what you have to consider, not JD and the gang. That said, this is merely me playing devil's advocate for the sake of facilitating discussion, for the sake of, in turn, banging out a policy agreement endowed with the fortitude to endure the arrows and slings of whining from the future.

Though I'm made uneasy by the irrevocableness of the agreement's terms, this second draft is, at a glance, seemingly comprehensive in its attention to preserving the safety, stability, quality, longevity and expandability of the Overclocked ReMix project; and well-written for clarity. Offsetting my fear, though, is my trust in Dave's, and, (to a slightly lesser extent) the Judges' and Judges-to-bes', intentions to not fuck up my shit, or the shit of others. Considering the afformentioned, I approve.

I know there's that. EULA's can be very binding, but you can, if I'm not very sorely mistaken, opt out of a EULA at any time, forcing them to stop distributing your work; the EULA just makes it so you can't hold the party you entered into the EULA with (hereafter referred to as "them") accountable for what they did with it during the time you'd given them permission to distribute it. In other words, a EULA protects how, but not for how long a work can be distributed. I'm proposing that, though a submitter is agreeing to the content policy, there's nothing within the policy that could prevent them from discontinuing and retracting their agreement at any point, thus freeing them to demand a work be taken down. Y'know?

I noticed you changed your policy on mix removal requests after getting some feedback. Has the new policy been looked over by the same lawyers who gave the OK to the old one? I ask because my inclination--albeit my inclination as a layperson--would be to say that you're unable to wrest from a copyright holder the rights to control how their intellectual property is distributed, even after they've entered into an agreement with an online distribution platform; that is, to create an agreement in which the owner of the material to be distributed cannot renig, I think ink and paper at the very least, if not licensing under formal contract, would have to be involved. And yes, I'm suing you. My lawyers are on the phone. And by "the phone" I mean the AIM. And by "my lawyers" I mean JesustheDarkLord. And by "suing you" I mean speaking of you with stern disapproval.

OK. Say someone submits a removal request that you deny, and then sues OCR on the grounds that they own the rights to the arrangement in question and OCR is distributing it without their permission, indeed, in the explicit absence of their permission. How does that play out?

I see cause for concern with several aspects of this proposed content policy. Consider the following: Once a work is submitted and accepted, OverClocked ReMix reserves the right to reject removal requests on the part of the submitting artist. Why would you reserve that right? Do you have the legal authority to do so? Where does this authority come from if the rights to a submitted arrangement remain legally in the hands of the arranger (the rights to the original piece that has been arranged, which remain with the appropriate company, not being of relevance to this issue). OverClocked ReMixes may not be redistributed for profit, or used in the context of commercial works, except by the original copyright owners of the arranged material(s). This implies legal ownership of an unauthorized arrangement on the part of the copyright holder of a piece, which isn't the case with OverClocked Remixes or any other unauthorized arrangement. When a composer, or, more likely for our purposes, a company, owns the rights to an original piece of music, that does not guarantee them the rights to an arrangement of said piece. If I were to cover Crazy, by Gnarls Barkley, and the company that owned the rights to that song, their record label, were to license the use of my cover in a film score, I would be able to sue the makers of the film and/or the record label in question, because, while they hold the rights to the song, they do not hold the rights to my arrangement. Likewise, I would not be able to license my cover to a filmmaker, because, though I own the rights to my arrangement, I don't own the rights to the song in its strictest sense. The aforementioned begs the question: When I submit to Overclocked Remix, am I entering into a legal agreement in which I give certain usage rights to an arrangement I've made to the copyright holders of the piece that I've arranged? Furthermore, is Overclocked ReMix vested with the legal authority to hold me to such an agreement, and, if so, under what penalty? Live performance or playback of OverClocked ReMixes may occur in commercial, for-profit spaces such as stores, private clubs, or other gatherings, so long as no cost is explicitly associated with listening to them and no endorsement of the commercial entity by OverClocked ReMix can be inferred. Does this mean that if I put on a live show at which I perform Music of my Groin, and there's a cover charge to get into said concert, I'm violating policy? I've slipped Blood on the Asphalt and Music of my Groin into my setlist on several occasions, and I have no plans to refrain from doing so in the future. While I'd like to put on all of my shows for free, playing venues with a good sound system, in an accessible part of New York City often necessitates going through an agent who will charge a non-negotiable cover. I'm willing to give up certain rights to the arrangements I make for the sake of facilitating a stable, sustainable, quality-controled archive, but I'm made uneasy by the seemingly dubious legality of the aforementioned clauses, even though they comprise mostly instances in which I will very likely have no personal cause for concern. There is, though, one clause for which I do have personal cause for concern: the clause addressing live performance in a for-profit environment. I need to know that my rights to perform my own arrangements live, at a venue people have paid to gain access to, are not being challenged, because unlike the other aspects of the policy I've brought under scrutiny, this one is pertinent to me, and will continue to be as I resume playing live shows, at which I may very well open with Music of My Groin--always a crowd-pleaser--during sound check, during the Summer.

Hey, guys. For the past 6-or-so months I've been spending two thirds of my weekends--the ones during which I'm not making music--playing a supporting character in a web-based miniseries called Captain S. The show tells the story of a teenager who gains the ability to travel into video games, ala Captain N, but, then, also spends a good deal of time tending to his schoolwork and relationships with his friends in the real world-- a sort of super-hero juggling act reminiscent of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and, perhaps more strongly, Sailor Moon--oh man, I fucking loves me some Sailor moon....Anyway. After hours upon hours of hard work from executive producer Chad Williams, formerly of X-strike Studios, and Producer/directors Bret Vanderbrook, Lindsey "Z" Briggs, and, last but not least, my brother Devon Riley, they've managed to produce and promote ten complete episodes, having released the series finale, Episode 10, early this afternoon. It would mean a lot to me if some of my older friends, the old guard from the fan-made video game music arrangement scene, would check out what me and the friends I've made since moving to New York City have been up to. Beyond the aforementioned, the series features unique, trade-secret special effects by PBC Productions, to the end of creating "video land" sequences: sequences in which actors are portrayed as animated sprites on a scrolling 16-bit background, as opposed to simply green-screened in in real time; mediocre acting by the more-well-known-for-his-music Yours Truly; a cornucopia of homages to video games of the 16-bit era, as well as after-school programming by Saban and their imitators; my really hot girlfriend; kids; animals; puppets, and a no-fucking-around, genuinely studio recorded, all-analog rock soundtrack by my friend and recent collaborator Glenn Case. All ten episodes are freely viewable as .movs at the PBC Productions website, and as FLVs, via Macromedia Flash Player on www.screwattack.com. Thanks for reading. Hope to see you guys again sometime soon. -S

I just found out that Capcom officially closed down the Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2 servers at the end of March. This marks the end of the best elements of one of my favorite games of all time. Sure, the execution was only fair, but being able to cooperatively escape a zombie-ridden metropolis, with the help of three other civilian survivors who are played by other real people via the Internet, was so satisfying a concept that the game's sometimes spotty presentation, antiquated control scheme and bevy of glitches could be overlooked. Well, I mean, I could overlook them. The game will still be playable offline, but who the fuck wants to play that shit offline? It has spotty presentation, an antiquated control scheme and a bevy of glitches. Without being able to stagger wounded down a corridor, wondering if one of your four friends is still alive, only climb a stairwell into an abandonned storeroom and find her backed into a corner, grabbed and about to be bitten by a zombie, to which you respond by levying your shotgun at the back of the creature's neck and blowing its jaw apart, through the back of its throat, as your shaken companion collapses, tapping shift-L3 to sputter out a "Mark, Thanks! You saved me," the game kind of blows. Without that, the game kind of blows. The Outbreak: File 1 servers are still up, but for how long? If I'm ever in a position to design video games I'm going to focus on the elements that the RE: Outbreak series broke ground with: immersive, cooperative, survival-based gameplay in a small-scale multiplayer environment. I never even got Yoko's good ending.

Yeah? Would you be down for an All's Fair in Love and Sega ReMix competition? Glenn Case, the series's chief composer--to reiterate, my musical contribution to the program is minimal; I'm really just an actor here--makes almost all of his music available for download from each episode's respective thread on the PBC messageboard, which can be accessed here: http://pbc-productions.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=281

Dear Overclocked ReMix, If you have a spare moment, you may want to If you have a spare moment, you may want to Digg Captain S - Episode 6, and watch it, while you're at it. Six and Seven are the best episodes yet, hands-down, and I'd watch them even if I weren't in them, as an actor, playing kind of an invincible meat-head who's good at sports. Captain S is a web-based sitcom about a Genesis fan who can go inside of Genesis games and beat up a guy wearing a power glove.

Larry Oji commemorative figurines, plz.

The term you'll have the most success querying is, I believe, "monologue rock," and try Billy's Little Trip - TW3RP, part of a Song Fight. Also look into the band King Missle; they're pretty rad.

This is me playing the ending credits theme from SF2:CE live in NYC, on an acoustic guitar, and singing, with backup vox and harmonica performed by my brother. Lyrics by Disk Mastah Smokabitch. I love that guy.

You should sing about your cock.

Photoshop this into a reality. I want a proof-of-concept!

Irrefutable evidence. I can DJP.

So, Shael Riley, what have you been up to lately? Well, I graduated from college just over two years ago, released an independent album of poorly produced, though cleverly constructed, electronic vocal pop, and moved to New York City, where I most certainly don't have a job. Also, I've been gaining weight! I have mixed feelings about the aforementioned. Anything more promising on the horizon? Yes! I've recently been involved, as an actor, in an independent miniseries fashioned loosely after an amalgamation of the formulas that once brought us Saved By the Bell, Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad, and Captain N: the Game Master. The show has recently developed a small but extremely vocal following on www.screwattack.com, where the show is webcast, and they are eagerly anticipating the release of Episode 3 this coming Friday. Check out episode 1 here and episode 2 here. Rever--Rever being screwattack's questionabley-selected video format--giving you trouble? You can download the episodes as Quicktimes at the PBC Productions homepage here.

What's all this talk about not having the guts to take on the big record labels? Here you have a person, the original composer and writeful owner of a piece of music that has made, probably, many thousands, if not millions, of dollars, to which he may be entitled. He is comepletely obscure, a non-celebrity with no reputation to protect, and is not a profesional musician with industry cred to protect either. He stands to lose nothing, and could gain a great deal of money and notoriety by taking the label who may have plagerized him to court. Even if he doesn't win his case, he stands a good chance at attracting enough media and industry attention to afford him future oppurtunities to release albums on a large, comercial scale, something he may have never been afforded had Timbuland's use of his composition not brought the talent and comercial viability of this demoscene artist into the public eye. Attorneys are not stupid; they're going to see some very promising evidence, not to mention a good chance for exposure, and someone is going to be willing to take this case pro bono, if the original artist is interested in pursuing legal action. And, for the record, I saw the YouTube video and I listened to the songs. If I were judging this case, Tim would be handing over all of the money he made from this track to its original composer. Has anyone considered going to G4/Tech TV with this? This is the bread and butter of their flagship program Attack of the Show.

Don't be silly. I will always be a material girl. Always.

Baby, check this out; I've got something to say! Shael Riley - Man It's So Loud in Here