After the band U2 sued over the record entitled U2 by Negativland, forcing the album out of existence (the remaining stock was ordered destroyed), SST Records (Negativland’s label) sued Negativland. This produced a big heap of paper, which got collated by Negativland into a book. A legal case over the “fair use” of the letter U and the numeral 2 makes for a bizarre document. Employing their own exclusive logic, Negativland convinced Gary Powers Jr. to write the book’s introduction. His pilot father was famous for being shot down behind the Iron Curtain in a U2 plane.
Included in this package is a CD oratory on the subject of fair use as well as an audio artwork constructed entirely of found soundbites. Together the book and disc provide much food for thought in the current climate where intellectual property is being redefined in the digital age. SA

Publisher: Seeland
Paperback: 270 pages
Illustrated