Wilco Settle Lawsuit
by Jaya Gupta | 00.00.0000

The members of Wilco have settled a lawsuit with U.K. label Irdial-Discs over the sound sample that was used in the outtro of the song “Poor Places”. The soundclip, which gave rise to the title of the band’s 2002 record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was taken from The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations's "Phonetic Alphabet Nato”. The clip is of a woman repeating the words “yankee, hotel, foxtrot,” in a monotone voice for the duration of 90 seconds.

The Conet Project is a historical assortment of numerous shortwave radio transmissions that were used by espionage agencies to secretly communicate with their agents doing fieldwork. Although the origin of the broadcast is unknown, the auditory nuances of the broadcast provided by the Conet Project make the piece subject to copyright laws.

Wilco attorney Josh Grier said in response, “When it was interpolated into the mix, Jeff [Tweedy, Wilco frontman] thought since it was an unidentifiable source, it was not a copyrightable recording. The comparison is if somebody goes out and records a lion roaring, the lion can't sue you, but maybe the person who made the recording can." The exact details of the settlement were not released, but Irdial-Discs will receive a royalty for the song, “Poor Places.”