Negativland U2

Front cover, featuring a profile of a U2 spy plane

Inside cover with track listing, with a photo of Francis Gary Powers

Back cover

The Story

This disc was released in August, 1991. Two weeks after the release, on 5 September 1991, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of Island Records and Warner/Chappell Music (the label and publishers of the band U2) against SST Records and Negativland to stop sales of the disc. The recording has two versions of a cover of U2's song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," including an unauthorized sample of the original recording by U2. It was also alleged that the artwork was confusing; that consumers would mistake it for a copy of a U2 recording. The members of the band U2 were not a party to the lawsuit and restraining order, and did not learn about it until after the fact.

The lawsuit resulted in an out-of-court settlement in November, in which the remaining unsold copies, master recordings and mechanical parts for creating more copies were to be destroyed by Island, and the copyrights for the recordings were transfered to Warner/Chappell. According to an accounting at the time, before the court order 6951 copies of U2 had been sold (it has been estimated that about 5300 of these were compact discs, the balance were cassette tapes and 12" vinyl) and 692 promotional copies had been distributed (probably all 12" vinyl). Other than some illegal (and not high-quality) counterfeit copies (CD and 7" vinyl), these remain the only copies of this recording available.

To try to cut a long story down to a manageable length (this is probably the best documented case of its type, due to the band's policy of making the whole process as public as possible), Negativland was later sued by their label SST (regarding who was going to pay the costs of the first case, as well as the band's publishing a book The Letter U and the Number 2 which included documents critical of their label). Negativland was eventually able to get permission from all the original parties involved to allow them to rerelease the recording. However, Casey Kasem (the disc jockey) has refused to let the court injunction be lifted, as the recording includes out-takes from his American Top 40 show in which he curses up a blue streak. The band was able to publish a second version of their book (with information about the second suit) now titled Fair Use: The Story of The Letter U and the Number 2, which includes many source documents, press clippings and legal opinions about this case as well as copyright law in general.

My Copy

I bought my copy for $75 from an internet retailer of used CDs (no longer in business). I used the profits from a copy of KMFDM's Naive I found for $10 and resold for $80. It was a used copy in very good condition, and was quite happy to add this disc to my collection of Negativland CDs, as I was a fan of the band before they became infamous due to this incident.

The Value

No copies have changed hands recently on eBay, but the values have dropped since the 2001 release of a "bootleg" album with the original EP (with many different live versions of the song) was made available via Negativland's web site.

Related CD

The CD EP below, Guns, was released in early 1992 to replace the U2 EP as far as Negativland's record deal with SST. The material on the CD has nothing to do with the earlier release (it is a reworked version of a work commissioned for New American Radio in 1990) but the cover is based upon the artwork for the earlier disc, and makes direct comment about the U2 situation on the back cover.

Front cover

Inside cover with track listing

Back cover, with the dedication to the band U2

References and Links

Fair Use: The Story of The Letter U and the Numeral 2, the above-mentioned book with a CD included, available via the band's website Negativmailorderland. Also available is the semi-legal 2001 CD reissue of U2 related music named These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit, relesed by a "mysterious bootleg label called Seelard Records (sic)."

Suits, Lawsuits, and Art: Negativland Takes On The Man. Two articles about this legal mess.

Audio files of both of the above CDs, from the band's website.

Discography entry for this disc from Negativland's website. Includes information on how to spot a counterfeit copy.

Back up to the Guide to Collectable CDs

Over to Negativland in my CD Collection listing

Over to Negativconcertland

Find any typos or have any questions, let me know.

All email asking me to sell or to make
illegal copies of my CDs will be ignored.

Last updated 30 December 2005.