10 ms·

The yodeler who sued Yahoo

63 points by muraiki 7y ago

JasonFruit 7y ago
(I will always pronounce Yahoo yay-hoo, and nobody can stop me. yay-hoo.com — it's my own little strike against the beast.)
- capsulecorp 7y ago
  I will always pronounce Jason jah-son, and you cant stop me. Jah-son Fruit.
  - rmbryan 7y ago
    I will always pronounce "capsule" with the Jean-Luc Picard glide, and you can't stop me. Capshule-corp.
    - capsulecorp 7y ago
      I don't think I would want to stop that.
m1cl 7y ago
boring
duxup 7y ago
That yodel was a pretty good bit of branding. It certainly sticks in your head. I'll probabbly never forget it.
- anitil 7y ago
  I remember getting in a lot of trouble at school because the teacher called us a 'bunch of yahoos'. I ... I just couldn't help myself and let rip
jedberg 7y ago
I can see why he'd be mad. If you were around the Bay Area in 1999/2000, that yodel was unescapable. He deserved to be paid.
- tdurden 7y ago
  He was paid, he just didn't ask for enough.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - jolmg 7y ago
    He wasn't paid. He was paid for giving a copyright license for a regional commercial. He wasn't paid for the copyright license Yahoo! needed for everything else they used his yodel for.
- jolmg 7y ago
  I would think it was inescapable if you were anywhere but in the most remote areas of the world.
imglorp 7y ago
I'm curious about IP protection on a 3.5 second performance, comprising 3 notes. What would appropriate "fair use" look like? And evidently, the fact that Yahoo made it their branding was something legally different than a local performance. Odd system we have.
- duxup 7y ago
  It probabbly is significant that they paid him in the first place too. Also would "fair use" in your mind apply to anyone else too? Not sure Yahoo would want to go all brand heavy on something anyone else could pick up either.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jstarfish 7y ago
  Jingles were common branding from the dawn of radio up until the 90s. Car dealers still use them for radio slots. "By Mennen" is 3 notes. The Sprint pindrop was...1?
- notahacker 7y ago
  Whatever appropriate "fair use" is, I'm pretty sure it isn't build your brand around it, and if you license a composition for use in a regional radio ad in order to avoid royalty payments, it's not fair use to also use it for everything else, whether it's 3.5 seconds long or not. The Intel jingle is only four notes, but Walter Werzowa's done rather well out of being paid to compose variants of it and it's rather more famous than his actual records...
alxmdev 7y ago
Incredible, the yodel's worth jumped from 3 to 7 figures once the artist's lawyers evened the playing field! This story reminds me of the Nike logo one, quote Wikipedia: For her services, the company paid her $35 ($206 in 2015 dollars), citing that she worked 17.5 hours on creating the Swoosh.
- bkrn 7y ago
  Worth mentioning that she got paid later (without her having to hire lawyers as far as I know) https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2011/06/nikes_swoosh_brand_logo_hits_4.html https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2011/06/nikes_swoosh_bra...
moate 7y ago
Duplicate. This has been posted 2 times already
- detaro 7y ago
  HN explicitly allows a few reposts if previous submissions didn't trigger a discussion or some amount of upvotes.

63 points by muraiki 7y ago

(I will always pronounce Yahoo yay-hoo, and nobody can stop me. yay-hoo.com — it's my own little strike against the beast.)

capsulecorp 7y ago
I will always pronounce Jason jah-son, and you cant stop me. Jah-son Fruit.
- rmbryan 7y ago
  I will always pronounce "capsule" with the Jean-Luc Picard glide, and you can't stop me. Capshule-corp.
  - capsulecorp 7y ago
    I don't think I would want to stop that.

m1cl 7y ago

boring

duxup 7y ago

That yodel was a pretty good bit of branding. It certainly sticks in your head. I'll probabbly never forget it.

anitil 7y ago
I remember getting in a lot of trouble at school because the teacher called us a 'bunch of yahoos'. I ... I just couldn't help myself and let rip

jedberg 7y ago

I can see why he'd be mad. If you were around the Bay Area in 1999/2000, that yodel was unescapable. He deserved to be paid.

tdurden 7y ago
He was paid, he just didn't ask for enough.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jolmg 7y ago
  He wasn't paid. He was paid for giving a copyright license for a regional commercial. He wasn't paid for the copyright license Yahoo! needed for everything else they used his yodel for.
jolmg 7y ago
I would think it was inescapable if you were anywhere but in the most remote areas of the world.

imglorp 7y ago

I'm curious about IP protection on a 3.5 second performance, comprising 3 notes. What would appropriate "fair use" look like? And evidently, the fact that Yahoo made it their branding was something legally different than a local performance. Odd system we have.

duxup 7y ago
It probabbly is significant that they paid him in the first place too. Also would "fair use" in your mind apply to anyone else too? Not sure Yahoo would want to go all brand heavy on something anyone else could pick up either.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jstarfish 7y ago
Jingles were common branding from the dawn of radio up until the 90s. Car dealers still use them for radio slots. "By Mennen" is 3 notes. The Sprint pindrop was...1?
notahacker 7y ago
Whatever appropriate "fair use" is, I'm pretty sure it isn't build your brand around it, and if you license a composition for use in a regional radio ad in order to avoid royalty payments, it's not fair use to also use it for everything else, whether it's 3.5 seconds long or not. The Intel jingle is only four notes, but Walter Werzowa's done rather well out of being paid to compose variants of it and it's rather more famous than his actual records...

alxmdev 7y ago

Incredible, the yodel's worth jumped from 3 to 7 figures once the artist's lawyers evened the playing field! This story reminds me of the Nike logo one, quote Wikipedia: For her services, the company paid her $35 ($206 in 2015 dollars), citing that she worked 17.5 hours on creating the Swoosh.

bkrn 7y ago
Worth mentioning that she got paid later (without her having to hire lawyers as far as I know) https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2011/06/nikes_swoosh_brand_logo_hits_4.html https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2011/06/nikes_swoosh_bra...

moate 7y ago

Duplicate. This has been posted 2 times already

detaro 7y ago
HN explicitly allows a few reposts if previous submissions didn't trigger a discussion or some amount of upvotes.