Kno Served with Cease and Desist, Expresses Frustration Over Situation (Updated)

Written by Tyler Hakes. Published: .

The Cunninlynguists producer professes some upsetting news after recently receiving a cease and desist letter for some earlier work.

The QN5 producer who released an astounding (top 10 of 2010) solo debut last year, reveals that, after receiving a cease and desist letter stemming from his production on the group’s 2006 release, he may call it quits in music all together if there are similar future occurrences.

It seems that the cease and desist letter, issued for an unknown track(s) from Cunninlynguists’ QN5 debut album, A Piece of Strange, may have been driven at least in part by the comments of YouTube users who actively discussed the samples included in the piece.

After initially receiving the letter in 2010, Kno recently took to the QN5.com forum to voice his frustration over the matter, saying that Oneirology — the group’s forthcoming release, due out in March on 2011 — would be the last album that he produces if he’s faced with similar circumstances in the future. He has since deleted the initial announcement, which showcased the letter he received and also divulged the specific YouTube comments — including the usernames — that were likely responsible for drawing the attention of the copyright holders.

Kno has historically been a vocal opponent of people who reveal sample details via YouTube comments. In November of 2010 he created a topic on the QN5 forum, titled “And y’all think I’m trippin….this is what happens”, which highlighted an example of the Seattle duo Blue Scholars, who were served with a cease and desist for their freely-released track, “Big Bank Hank”, just one or two weeks after users divulged the sample sources publicly on the track’s YouTube video.

It’s unclear at this time whether Kno will actually be calling it quits from music. The announcement and ensuing discussions have sparked major debates among members of the QN5.com forum. It appears as though Kno is making a final plea to fans for them to stop posting such comments, threatening to retire for good if there’s another instance similar to this one.

“[A Piece of Strange] would have cost 3+ million dollars to clear all of the samples on it—but some people have told me it literally SAVED THEIR LIVES,” he explained. “Should it not exist? Should I now be lectured on legal morality by people with just as many skeletons in their closets and blunts in their ashtrays just because they want to defend their right to talk about samples on one of the biggest websites in the world?”

For his part, Kno admits his guilt in the matter. “The music I make infringes on copyrights. I am aware of this and have been aware of this, that is why I don’t stress getting rich off of it, I tell people to download it if they want to and I sink any money I do make back into making more records,” he said.

“I am not ‘blaming fans’, I’m stating facts,” he explained. But, he did make it clear that he hopes these comments will stop. “Public discussion of specific instances of copyright infringement in my work is making it impossible to even create the music period, even if I were to give it away for free. It would still end up on Youtube and I’d still get served by Google-searching lawyers and publishing houses who think they might be able to squeeze money out of me.”

UPDATE: Kno said in a recent e-mail to aboveGround that he will not be quitting, clarifying some of the statements made in this article.

“I said, again, is ‘X, Y and Z’ happen I won’t have any other choice. If THAT happens, then I will quit due to necessity. That hasn’t happened, so I am not quitting,” the MC and producer wrote. “I feel like the guy who makes a passing remark about a bad day at work only to have 10 of his co-workers call his boss jockeying for his ’eminently opening position’. I get to work Monday and there’s a bunch of ‘We’ll Miss You, Bob!’ cards on my desk.”

Cunninlynguists’ fifth studio album, Oneirology, is duo out on March 22 via QN5.

Category: Culture