Bang infringed Sony Music's rights in social media videos, court confirms
A US judge has ruled by summary judgement that energy drink Bang infringed the copyrights of Sony Music when it used the major's recordings in promotional videos posted to social media. However, the judge only partly sided with Sony when it comes to videos uploaded by influencers who were working with Bang's marketing team.

Given the recent ruling in a similar case pursued by Universal Music, it's no surprise that the judge sided with Sony in relation to Bang's own promotional videos.

While social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have licensing deals with the music industry, those licences only cover user-generated content, not videos uploaded to those platforms by brands. Brands need to directly license any music they use in their promo videos, just like with any other advertising content they create.

Genuine ignorance of that obligation within any one brand's marketing team isn't really a defence, even if it means any infringement wasn't wilful - although that could impact on any damages the brand might be ordered to pay. Meanwhile, the judge overseeing the Sony v Bang case also rejected various other technicalities raised by the energy drink's legal team.

But what about the influencer content basically commissioned by Bang that also included unlicensed music? Both Sony and Universal want the drinks brand held liable for that as well - specifically for contributory infringement and vicarious infringement. After all, Bang was involved in the creation of those videos, had systems in place to review influencer content, and got the big old marketing benefit of those videos being streamed and shared.

In the Universal case, the judge declined to issue a summary judgement in favour of the major on either the contributory infringement or vicarious infringement claim. Sony, meanwhile, has succeeded in getting a summary judgement in its favour on the vicarious infringement point, but not in terms of contributory infringement.

On the latter, the judge writes: "In their motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs argue that Bang is liable for contributory copyright infringement because the undisputed facts demonstrate that Bang knew or had reason to know of the influencers' infringements and in fact materially contributed to the influencers' infringements".

"In support of Bang's knowledge", he goes on, "plaintiffs cite to the following undisputed facts: Bang maintains supervision, direction, and control over the influencer videos through Bang's 'audit team'. Bang's audit team ensures the influencers' compliance with Bang's social media guidelines, the platforms' respective social media guidelines, and relevant laws, including but not limited to copyright laws".

However, "in response, Bang argues that knowledge of the videos is not the same as knowledge of the infringement and there is evidence from which a reasonable juror could infer Bang reasonably believed that the influencers' use of plaintiffs' copyrighted works was not prohibited. The court agrees".

So, "while plaintiffs have submitted evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that Bang knew or had reason to know of the influencers' infringement, Bang has also submitted evidence from which a juror could conclude that Bang reasonably and in good faith believed that its use - and thereby the influencers' use - of plaintiffs' copyrighted works was not barred by law".

And "while plaintiffs have offered significant evidence to rebut Bang's evidence, it is not the province of the court to weigh the credibility of evidence on a motion for summary judgment. Accordingly, disputes of fact remain regarding whether Bang knew or had reason to know of the infringing conduct".

In terms of the vicarious infringement claim, Sony needs to demonstrate that Bang had a certain degree of control over the influencer videos and benefited from them commercially. In Universal's case, the judge ruled that the major had only done the first of those two things. But, Sony has successfully ticked both boxes.

"The court finds that plaintiffs have met their burden at summary judgment as to the requisite control element of vicarious infringement claim based on Bang's failure to exercise its right to stop or limit the Bang influencer's direct infringement", he says. "The second element of a vicarious infringement claim is direct financial benefit".

"It is apparent from the record that Bang earned a direct financial benefit from the infringement", he goes on. "First, it is undisputed that Bang markets its products through social media posts, including by engaging influencers to promote and market Bang and its related products through the influencers' videos on social media platforms".

"Further evidencing direct financial benefit", he adds "is the fact that Bang agrees to pay the influencers a 15% commission from its own profits for any Bang products purchased using that influencer's promo code. And, of course, Bang financially benefitted by avoiding having to pay plaintiffs any licence fees for the copyrighted works".

So, not a complete win for Sony Music, but a pretty good result. The major also prevailed earlier this week in a side dispute in relation to Bang deleting many of the videos that contained the music company's recordings.

Because Bang failed to store that evidence, Sony asked that the court presume that its copyrights were indeed infringed in those videos, and that said videos performed as well as other Bang videos on the social platforms. Those presumptions are not only important in helping Sony prove Bang's liability, but also in calculating any possible damages.

Although again not granting Sony everything it wanted, the magistrate judge that considered that side dispute nevertheless mainly sided with the major. She wrote that, with the deleted videos, "plaintiffs shall receive a rebuttable presumption that, should song ownership be proven, plaintiffs have also established the second element of a copyright infringement claim, copying (both legal and factual) of constituent elements of the work that are original".

Where usage data for videos has been lost, "plaintiffs shall receive a rebuttable presumption that the videos had the same reach as a comparable post by the account on which the video was posted".

While neither Sony nor Universal got everything they wanted on summary judgement in relation to Bang's promotional videos, the two cases certainly confirm that brands need to directly license any music they put into their own social media posts, and some caution needs to be exercised regarding influencer content too. Especially as both majors are likely to push a little further regarding the liabilities around influencer partnerships.

It remains to be seen if further litigation is filed against other brands who may have assumed or hoped that music in their Instagram or TikTok posts was covered by those platforms' licences. Or maybe the precedents set here are enough to pressure other brands to comply out of court.

Sony Music did also sue Gymshark over the music in its social media videos, but it turns out that litigation was settled earlier this year.

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Billy McFarland ponders how to pay back defrauded Fyre Festival investors
Billy McFarland is back. Now out of prison, the Fyre Festival founder is making plans to raise the $26 million he is supposed to be paying back to the investors he defrauded when putting that infamous doomed event together.

"I'd like to do something tech-based", he says in an interview with the New York Times. "The good thing with tech is that people are so forward-thinking, and they're more apt at taking risk. If I worked in finance, I think it would be harder to get [the money] back. Tech is more open. And the way I failed is totally wrong, but in a certain sense, failure is OK in entrepreneurship".

"At the end of the day, I think I could probably create the most value by building some sort of tech product", he goes on. "Whether that's within a company or by starting my own company, I'm open to both. I'll probably decide in the next couple of weeks which path to go down".

One potential issue - in terms of him setting up his own business - is that as part of his sentencing McFarland is barred from becoming the director of a company. But I guess he'll just need to find someone else to be formally designated director.

The Fyre Festival chief was sentenced to six years in prison back in 2018 after being found guilty of defrauding investors in his Fyre business. He was recently released early, although was initially residing in a so called halfway house.

He now seems pretty keen to make good on his past bad conduct. Although, $26 million is rather a lot of money to pay back. And previous efforts to raise some cash have not gone well. In October 2020, while still in jail, he launched a podcast called Dumpster Fyre, which promised to tell the Fyre Festival story "from all sides" - including his own.

He said that he hoped to use money made from the podcast to repay some of his fraud debts. However, the podcast quickly died a death, after prison officials took a dim view of the project - which saw him recording interviews over the phone - and placed him in solitary confinement.

That wasn't McFarland's first stint in solitary as a result of efforts to make money off the back of Fyre Festival. He had planned to write a memoir while in prison, but ended up confined alone for three months after he was found to have smuggled a USB drive into jail on which he was saving notes for the book.

Asked by the NYT if he still planned to write said book, he said that he had now abandoned the idea, in part because it was unlikely to make enough money. "The book's not going to pay the restitution, let me put it that way", he says.

It remains to be seen what McFarland's next move will be - and whether he manages to do something that doesn't land him back in prison. Although he reckons he's finally definitely learned his lesson now - you know, after he was discovered to have set up another fraudulent ticketing scheme while on probation ahead of his original court case.

"I probably added years on to my sentence by doing that", he admits. "I just was making bad decision after bad decision".

As for why he defrauded investors in Fyre Festival in the first place, he says: "I think I was scared. And the fear was letting down people who believed in me - showing them they weren't right".

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DNS resolvers hit out at the music industry's web-blocking orders
Cloudflare has commented on efforts by the music industry to force it to block people from accessing piracy websites by adding filters to its DNS resolver 1.1.1.1. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is something the internet services company is very concerned about.

Although an entirely legitimate internet business, Cloudflare has been criticised by copyright owners over the years for providing services to websites that allegedly infringe copyright. Music companies would like Cloudflare to be much more proactive in ensuring that doesn't happen. But Cloudflare has generally resisted such calls, though nevertheless complies with any court orders that demand sanctions against infringing sites.

Various court orders have been sought by the music industry demanding such sanctions. Though an injunction secured in Italy in July targeted a different part of Cloudflare's operations - ordering that certain piracy sites be blocked via its DNS resolver.

Most people don't even realise they are using a DNS resolver when accessing the web, as it's a process usually handled by their internet service provider. However, DNS resolvers play a key role in enabling people to browse the net, and - if they want to - those people can always opt to use a different DNS resolver to the one employed by their ISP.

One reason for doing so is to circumvent the web-blocks put in place by the ISPs in some countries. When ISPs block access to piracy websites - usually because of court orders secured by music and movie companies - they often instigate those blocks by adding filters to their DNS resolvers. Which means the ISP's customers can circumvent the blocks by simply switching to another DNS resolver.

With web-blocking an anti-piracy tactic of choice for the music and movie industries - in those countries where web-blocking injunctions are relatively easy to secure - in recent years music and movie companies have started to look at ways to make it harder for people to circumvent web-blocks that have been put in place by the ISPs. And that has started to involve going after the operators of alternative DNS resolvers.

In Italy, internet regulator AGCOM had ordered to blocking of three piracy sites, and the question was then posed as to whether Cloudflare should also be obliged to ensure those sites couldn't be accessed via its DNS resolver. That question ended up in the Court Of Milan, which issued an interim injunction saying that, yes, Cloudflare should block access to those sites via the 1.1.1.1 resolver.

In a new transparency report, Cloudflare raises specific concerns about this development, distinguishing the web-blocks it has implemented elsewhere on its platform from those it is being asked to implement on the DNS resolver.

Specifically, with the former Cloudflare can limit any blocks to the country where any one web-blocking order is issued, but with the latter any blocks would apply globally. Which basically means courts impacting on internet usage well beyond their jurisdictions.

"Cloudflare has … received a small number of legal requests related to blocking or filtering content through the 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver", it writes in its new report. "Because such a block would apply globally to all users of the resolver, regardless of where they are located, it would affect end users outside of the blocking government's jurisdiction".

"We therefore evaluate any government requests or court orders to block content through a globally available public recursive resolver as requests or orders to block content globally", it adds.

"Given the broad extraterritorial effect, as well as the different global approaches to DNS-based blocking", it goes on, "Cloudflare has pursued legal remedies before complying with requests to block access to domains or content through the 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver or identified alternate mechanisms to comply with relevant court orders. To date, Cloudflare has not blocked content through the 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver".

Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 is not the only DNS resolver that the music industry would like to see put in place some piracy filters. In Germany, Sony Music has been pursuing legal action against a not-for-profit DNS resolver called Quad9, with the major successfully securing a web-block injunction in the Hamburg courts.

Quad9 is fighting those efforts by Sony, and it posted an update on its battle with the major at the end of last month. As the legal dispute proceeds, Sony Music recently filed a new lawsuit with the court in Leipzig.

In its update, Quad9 reported that it had "responded comprehensively to that filing including expert witness testimony by a highly respected group of technical subject matter experts".

"The significance of this is that, while our arguments are roughly the same as with our first track in Hamburg, we have had the opportunity to fill in additional background information for each of them", it added. "We are currently awaiting the courts to provide dates for a hearing, which is the next significant step in the process".

The outcome of its ongoing legal battle with Sony Music, it went on, "is significant for not only Quad9, but global internet users as well. In the event that Quad9 does not prevail, a very dangerous precedent could be set, potentially threatening many more layers of the internet model, which reaches up towards the user and downwards to the root (of the namespace)".

"Should Sony prevail, it is not unlikely that other rights holders will follow suit and request the blocking of further domain names making it difficult or impossible for us to operate", it then claimed. "Also it is possible that thousands of similar DNS resolver operators, including company networks, will receive blocking demands with the risk of being sued in case they do not comply".

"This could be the case even though the DNS operator nor any government authority have not had a chance to fully examine or been given the reasons behind such blocking requirements", it added.

Music companies would likely counter that many ISPs initially opposed the introduction of web-blocks, likewise claiming that the flood gates would open and a plethora of websites would end up being blocked without proper scrutiny. But that hasn't really happened, and most ISPs in those countries where web-blocks are common have just accepted web-blocking as being a routine part of business.

But it will nevertheless be interesting to see whether DNS resolvers will be able to successfully fight back against court orders directly targeting their operations - and also where else in the internet supply chain the music and movie industries' anti-piracy activities will focus in the future.

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Kanye West moves to end Gap partnership
Kanye West has said that he is ending his partnership with Gap, claiming that the clothing retailer has failed to meet its obligations under the deal.

"Gap left Ye no choice but to terminate their collaboration agreement because of Gap's substantial noncompliance", said West's attorney Nicholas Gravante in a statement. "Ye had diligently tried to work through these issues with Gap both directly and through counsel. He has gotten nowhere".

Gap CEO Mark Breitbard confirmed that the deal was being terminated in a memo to staff, although Yeezy Gap products already in development will still seemingly go on sale.

"While we share a vision of bringing high quality, trend-forward, utilitarian design to all people through unique omni experiences with Yeezy Gap", Breitbard wrote, "how we work together to deliver this vision is not aligned. And we are deciding to wind down the partnership".

"Yeezy Gap was launched to be a disruptive, highly creative endeavour - one that's challenged us to think and operate differently, attracted new, younger and more diverse customers, and enabled our talent to deliver incredible work with unmatched dedication, grit and creativity", he went on. "We look forward to our upcoming Yeezy Gap launches and releases in the pipeline, as planned. To the Yeezy Gap team, thank you for your unrelenting push to build this business - we will harness that same energy as we push forward".

The West/Gap partnership was originally announced in 2020, with the first West-designed product hitting Gap stores last year. Last month, the latest stage of the collaboration came in for criticism after a line of West clothes were presented in stores in rubbish bags, which the rapper seemed to say had been inspired by "the homeless".

The Gap deal was supposed to run for at least ten years, but tensions have been apparently building since shortly after the partnership was announced, with West increasingly criticising the brand as time has gone on. Although, if it's any consolation to Team Gap, he's also been criticising Adidas, with which he has a similar deal, which he is also seeking to terminate.

Expanding on the rapper's grievances, West's team says that - under its deal - Gap was obligated to sell 40% of Yeezy Gap products in physical stores, and also open five shops selling only Yeezy Gap products by July next year. But the first two products launched under the deal - a jacket in 2020 and a hoodie last year - were sold exclusively online.

As he draws the Gap and Adidas collaborations to a close, West has hinted that he plans to open his own clothing retail stores.

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Ethereum completes 'merge' that slashes blockchain's energy consumption
The long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, making the way it all works much more energy efficient, has now been completed. As most music NFT ventures to date have utilised Ethereum - or so called sidechains linked to Ethereum - it's an important development, given the many environmental concerns that have been raised about blockchain-based products and services.

The upgrade, often referred to as the 'merge', changes the way new transactions are verified on the Ethereum blockchain, so that the system moves from a 'proof of work' to 'proof to stake' system. The Verge explains the difference in this article here.

But the key point is that the change greatly reduces the energy required to run the blockchain. By, like, more than 99%. In fact, an organisation called the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute estimates energy consumption will drop by 99.988%.

As for what that means in more practical terms, the CCRI says in a new report that the network will go from using about 23 million megawatt-hours per year to just over 2,600 megawatt-hours per year, which, the CCRI reckons, is "slightly less than the amount of energy 100 homes in the US would use in a year". It means carbon dioxide emissions caused by the running of Ethereum will drop from about eleven million tons to about 870 tons

Now, that report was commissioned by ConsenSys, an Ethereum software company founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. But other analysts have made similar predictions about the impact the 'merge' will have on the blockchain's energy consumption.

Completion of the shift to the new system was confirmed on Twitter yesterday by Ethereum's inventor Vitalik Buterin. He wrote: "And we finalised! Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today".

Although it's still unclear quite how blockchains in general - and the non-fungible tokens that can be minted on the blockchain - will impact on the music industry in the long-term, it seems certain the impact will be significant in one way or another.

And, of course, plenty of start-ups are currently collaborating with artists, labels and others in the music community on various music-based products and services utilising blockchain technologies and NFTs.

However, a lot of that activity has raised concerns in parts of the music community because of the widely documented environmental issues regarding the energy consumption involved in operating a blockchain. And for those artists who are particularly vocal about climate change, getting involved in NFT projects has been something of a PR challenge as a result.

Blockchain and NFT enthusiasts in the music community will be hoping that - while minting NFTs clearly still uses more energy than just not minting NFTs - the climate-based backlash to such activity might subside a little. And, after all, anything we do digitally with content uses some energy. Including you reading this article. You climate destroyer you!

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New Blackpool radio station aims to fill gap left when Radio Wave became Greatest Hits Radio
With a lot of local radio stations in the UK being gobbled up in recent years by national networks like Bauer's Greatest Hits Radio, it's always interesting to see people attempting to launch and successfully run new truly local radio services.

One of the local stations that was merged into the Greatest Hits Network back in 2020 was Blackpool's Radio Wave. Now the former Station Director at Radio Wave, Paula Davies, is launching a new station on the DAB network in the seaside town called Coastal Radio, and she has hired a number of former Radio Wave DJs to present shows on it.

Before Bauer started merging both existing and newly acquired local stations into its Greatest Hits Radio network, rival radio firm Global likewise started focusing on a small number of national networks, switching local AM and FM frequencies over from old local radio brands so that they became outposts of things like the Capital and Heart networks.

There are still some local or at least regional programmes on those networks, often in the drive time slot, and news content and ads will often differ from region to region, but most of the shows on the networks go out nationally.

Unlike Global, Bauer does still operate a number of truly local radio brands, though most of the programmes they air are also networked, ie all the different local brands around the country actually air the same shows for most of the day.

So, fully local stations like the new Coastal Radio are becoming the exception rather than the norm. The new Blackpool service, due to go live on 26 Sep, will feature shows by former Radio Wave DJs like Ged Mills, Hayley Kay and Scott Gallagher.

Davies told Radio Today: "I understand the value of being truly local, because the people and businesses really matter to me. We live and breathe the Fylde Coast, so we know what matters to our listeners. We aim to provide great local content including news, weather, traffic and events information and to be entertained with music from the last five decades!"

"Being local and having the connection to our listeners is the reason I've set up Coastal Radio DAB in the first place", she added. "We are here to fill the gap that Radio Wave left when it ceased all local content".

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DEALS

Dice has signed a deal to be the official ticketing partner of German festival company Goodlive Festivals, extending an existing relationship with the firm's bookings and touring division. Dice will do the ticketing for Goodlive events Melt, Splash, Full Force, Heroes and Superbloom next year. "Dice has been successful in international ticketing for many years and is already popular with fans", says Goodlive MD Marko Hegner. "We were pleased to be the official partner for the launch of Dice in Germany this year [via] Goodlive Artists, and now also with our festivals".

Kobalt has signed Cat Burns to a worldwide publishing administration deal. "Signing to Kobalt has been great", she says. "I love having a team that really cares about my vision and allows me to have creative control as an artist".

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APPOINTMENTS

Universal Music's Def Jam Recordings in the US has named Mike Hamilton as SVP Streaming & Commerce. He joins from Sony Music's Epic Records. "No entity in modern music has had a more profound impact on culture than Def Jam", he says. "The legacy of this brand is both rich and vast, and I am honoured at the chance to add to it. I'm excited to help break the next generation of superstar artists".

Nic Bestley has joined music PR company Huxley as Associate Director Of Publicity. "I'm over the moon to be joining Huxley at such an exciting time", he says. "[Founder] Anna [Meacham] and I go back a number of years, so I am THRILLED to get the opportunity to contribute to the compelling vision she has for the company. Huxley has such a distinctive reputation for their innovative work and impressive roster so it's the perfect place to take the next step of my career".

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RELEASES

Blackpink have released the video for 'Shut Down', from their new album 'Born Pink', which is also out today.

Carly Rae Jepsen has released new single 'Talking To Yourself'. Her new album, 'The Loneliest Time', is out on 21 Oct.

Ab-Soul has released new single 'Moonshooter'. A new album is apparently on the way too.

Bush have released new single 'Heavy Is The Ocean', from their new album 'The Art Of Survival', which is out on 7 Oct. "Oh Lord, this is going to open the record", says Gavin Rossdale. "It really sets the tone and the gravitas of the album. I love the power of the ocean. It's mesmerising to me. It feeds your soul. The song uses the imagery I love. At this point, I'm chained at the zoo of rock! So, I was like, 'Fuck it, I'm going to turn that puppy up'. This one definitely represents 'The Art Of Survival'".

Noga Erez has released a new version of her recent single 'Nails', featuring Missy Elliott.

Andrew Broder has released new single 'Sleeping Car Portal', featuring Moor Mother and Billy Woods. "Moor Mother and Billy Woods are two of my favourite writers, rappers and vocalists", says Broder. "I wanted to make a Noir, Lynch-style banger. Something like Gravediggaz hanging with Burial. I knew their styles would fit well with the song and album's themes of waking dreams and predetermined reality. I think Alan Moore would vibe with this".

Lorde's poet sister Indy Yelich O'Connor has launched her own music project, under the name Indy, with her debut single 'Threads'. "I wrote this song when I was going through a very on-off relationship for years", she says. "When I think of this song I think of a passionate argument, miscommunication, the excitement of New York City night life. A toxic, messy love affair".

Dora Jar has released new single 'Bump'. "I wrote 'Bump' when I was living in Poland and for the first time in my life I didn't really know anyone in that city except for the family I was staying with so I wasn't bumping into people I knew anywhere", she says. "This song felt like a prayer to encounter a meaningful coincidence and eventually it began happening".

Gilla Band have released new single 'Post Ryan', which samples the drums from A Flock Of Seagulls' 'I Ran (So Far Away)'. "We thought, that's a really great, immediate pop-sounding beat, let's start there and go somewhere else – to have that immediacy, and then abstract out from there", say the band. Their new album, 'Most Normal', is out on 7 Oct.

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GIGS & TOURS

Chloe Moriondo has announced UK tour dates in February next year, finishing up at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London on 18 Feb. Tickets go on sale next Friday. Her new album, 'Suckerpunch', is out on 7 Oct. Here's new single 'CDBaby<3'.

Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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John Lydon says bandmates are attempting to cash in on the Queen's death
John Lydon has accused the other Sex Pistols of attempting to exploit the death of Queen Elizabeth II for commercial gain via new uses of the band's track 'God Save The Queen'. His former bandmates have countered this by saying that they have absolutely no idea what he's banging on about.

In a statement on his website, Lydon says he "wishes to distance himself from any Sex Pistols activity which aims to cash in on Queen Elizabeth II's death. The musicians in the band and their management have approved a number of requests against John's wishes on the basis of the majority court-ruling agreement".

He's referring there, of course, to the court case in the UK last year where Lydon attempted to block the use of the band's music in the Danny Boyle directed TV series 'Pistol'. He lost that battle, after it was ruled that he had given up his right to veto such licensing agreements via an old band agreement that said only a majority of band members must agree to such deals.

"In John's view, the timing for endorsing any Sex Pistols requests for commercial gain in connection with 'God Save The Queen' in particular is tasteless and disrespectful to the Queen and her family at this moment in time", the statement goes on. "John wrote the lyrics to this historical song, and while he has never supported the monarchy, he feels that the family deserves some respect in this difficult time, as would be expected for any other person or family when someone close to them has died".

Responding, a spokesperson for guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook said: "We cannot understand what he would be referring to. Other than a couple requests for use of imagery or audio in news reports on The Queen and her impact on culture, there's nothing new relating to 'God Save The Queen' being promoted or released in any way".

There were a number of efforts to cash in on 'God Save The Queen' at the time of the Queen's platinum jubilee earlier this year, of course, including the re-release of the single itself and a commemorative coin and NFT bundle.

Both of those remain for sale on the Sex Pistols website, which may partly be what has irked Lydon. Although he does seem to be suggesting that there have been new efforts to profit from 'God Save The Queen' following the Queen's death last week.

In almost related news, the UK has an extra bank holiday on Monday to mark the funeral of the Queen, which means we won't be publishing an edition of the CMU Daily that day. Fingers crossed, that, at least, will win John Lydon's approval.

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