To give you all a little more on Miranda, since the presentation flew by…here’s a snippet of my paper!
For this paper and exploration of Fair Use, I am going to examine a Youtube sensation called “Miranda Sings”, a character created by comedian, Colleen Ballinger. I will examine if the character Ballinger has created could be sued for Copyright infringement or if Ballinger and her art would protected under Copyright law and Fair Use.
Youtube is a website that allows users to post any kind of digital media that be shared in a video form. One can post anything from music videos of recording artists, clips of television shows, video blogs, and a lot more. Created by three former PayPal employees in 2006, Youtube as revolutionized the World Wide Web. Youtube has become a medium that allows “the average Joe” to become a star. Users post themselves performing an artistic endeavor in the hopes that a talent scout, casting agent, or producer will discover the artist. Some are successful and some are not.
Colleen Ballinger was successful in the vein that she created a character named Miranda Sings. Colleen Ballinger is a twenty-something female from California. She is an aspiring comedian, actress, singer, and fame monster. Colleen began her journey to fame by studying at Azusa Pacific University, in Los Angeles, California. Like many struggling artists, in today’s society, Colleen turned to Youtube.
Miranda is a character that is quite special. Her mother has told Miranda, that she is in fact the greatest singer in the whole entire world. Miranda is a confident young woman who takes her self-proclaimed artistic abilities and remakes songs that are popular on today’s radio. Mirandasings08, is the name of her Youtube channel that holds over two million hits. Miranda covers everything from Lady GaGa to Glee to everything in between.Miranda’s character has truly evolved over the past two years, when Ballinger launched the Mirandasings08 Channel in 2009. Miranda went from doing A ccapella covers, meaning Miranda would sing without any sound, just that of her voice to creating full blown videos that portray the themes of that artist and the creative team designed for the music.
Miranda has become such a sensation that Ballinger has toured the world as Miranda selling out venues in New York City, Los Angeles, and London- just to name a few. Miranda has gotten the attention of many different celebrities, including those in the cast of “Rock of Ages” which is currently on Broadway. Ballinger has found a way to create a living off of this character. Ballinger is a truly genius comedian, but also a very talented singer. Ballinger is on Youtube performing as herself, where she belts out the works of Jason Robert Brown, Jonathan Larson and other greats of the musical theatre world.
Ballinger receives a lot of criticism for the character, because Miranda is a very over the top and almost offensive statement. Miranda is making a comment about how on Youtube self righteous aspiring performing artists post themselves singing, dancing, or acting, in the hope that they will get discovered. Not many people who have viewed the Miranda Sings page admire Ballinger for making the statement she is. In order to show the viewers that she in face aware of their feelings, Ballinger has Miranda make shout outs to “the haters” who think Miranda and Ballinger are uncalled for. However, by doing this, Ballinger is also following in the footsteps of the Youtube viewers who leave nasty comments on these self-proclaimed great artists’ pages. Ballinger and Miranda have generated a lot of buzz and received a lot of attention.
As I became more infatuated with Miranda and what she would do next, especially while taking this course, I began to wonder what would happen if Miranda were to get hit with a lawsuit about Copyright infringement? I began fantasize about a ridiculous case of Colleen Ballinger versus Beyonce Knowles. I thought it would be an interesting exploration to model the Campbell versus Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. case in order to examine if Ballinger’s work would be protected under the law.
That was a very good post,Maybe I might sign up to your rss.