Winner with ‘Man and Machine’

Måns Zelmerlöw, representing Sweden, won the Eurovision Song Contest. His performance in the finals on Saturday 23 May was an incredible interplay between Man and Machine. Everything was right – powerful song, powerful message based on real life event and incredible animations. The timing was perfect and can be viewed in Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden) – LIVE at Eurovision 2015 posted on YouTube by the Eurovision Song Contest channel!

[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/-msutN_OkU4 ” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

However, running in the background there is a controversy. Another musician who remains unnamed is claiming that the figures used in Heroes violate copyright. It is suspected that Danny Punk , is behind the claim because of the stick figures he used in one of his earlier works, “The Alchemy of Light”.

In response, Måns Zelmerlöw decided to remove his first version of the video from YouTube before the Eurovision Song Contest and replace it with another one based on the lyrics of Heroes, Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Official Video).

[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/-nbq6Ur103Q” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

However, the video of the Måns Zelmerlöw live performance and animation is now back online through the Eurovision Song Contest channel both from the semi-final and the winning events.

The Danny Punk video with his string figure animation can be viewed below.

[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/UG2Xn_qDT0s” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]

Is this a copyright violation or no violation? This raises an interesting question… where does copyright end and our own creativity of expanding an idea begins?

Additional Resource

Sweden: Måns Zelmerlöw pulls “Heroes” video following copyright warning over stick figure