I have to confess to you today I felt no small degree of smug satisfaction when I read in the BBC News website (Ninja kitten band win Coke battle) that the Argentinean arm of mighty sickly-sweet soft drinks producer Coca Cola has just settled out of court with a small UK band for infringing their copyright.
At the start of this year, the band, 7 Seconds of Love, an unsigned ska group based in London, were dismayed to discover that Coke was broadcasting an ad for Coke Light in Argentina which not only sounded like their song, but also strongly resembled their own video; of an animated dancing Ninja cat. Despite being relative unknowns in the conventional music industry market, 7 Seconds nonetheless has a large internet following, made especially popular through cult website rathergood.com – known for its animated animals and also created and run by the band’s lead singer Joel Veitch. It was through their online fan base that he and the rest of the group discovered what was going on.
“We’d heard about a Ninja-style Coke TV ad from fans in Argentina,” said Veitch, also the band’s original Ninja video animator. In their MySpace 4th January press release he went on: “But when they put the campaign online, and we saw it for the first time, we just couldn’t believe the resemblance. It’s not just the music, but the visual style too – our collective jaws dropped. So whereas you could potentially get away with a sound-alike of the audio, or a look-alike of the video, in combining the two, you then have something which is passing itself off as our work.”
Coke Argentina’s initial response to the band’s complaint at the start of January was, “’both the advertising agency and the jingle creator guaranteed the originality of each of the works contained in the advertisement, so we are really surprised by the terms of your claim.’” Since then the band’s claim appears in Coke’s eyes to have become the real thing; this week came the announcement the parties have settled for an undisclosed sum. Coke’s ad has also been pulled.
I suppose what satisfies me most about this case (aside from the classic David & Goliath spin of the story – described by Sky News as such) is firstly that even colossal international conglomerates can be made to tow the IP rights line (which is not I hasten to say making a blanket assumption that all conglomerates’ intentions are to thieve others’ IP rights), and secondly that it was through the multi-media immediacy of the broadband-information age that helped (sorry, can’t resist) let the cat out of the bag and enabled the band to take prompt action.
The band are to be applauded, not just for having the courage to take action, but for setting aside some of the settlement to charity (Tommy’s, the baby’s charity, and SANDS, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society) rather than pocket the lot for themselves. At the same time it’s gratifying to see Coca Cola take responsibility and seek to settle rather than wade in punching. While the motivation on the corporation’s side may not be entirely altruistic (they’ll have negative business and marketing repercussions to consider after all), it’s nonetheless good to see them take the pro-active step to the table and resolve the matter.
The band will use their share of the settlement to develop their career and produce an EP including their Ninja track. I wish them success.
See the band’s “Ninja” video at rathergood.com.
I also recommend Veitch’s video of “Insects” by Osaka Popstar
© 2007 Julian Boote All Rights reserved.
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