Unofficial Yadein II 'Video' on YouTube

We recently received an email from a fan informing us that he had set our song Yadein II against a slideshow ‘video’ and released it on YouTube. The video shows images of the Pakistani military and its nuclear capable missile arsenal. In the interest of fairness to the fan that put the video together, you can check it out here

Of course, we are very flattered that someone appreciated the song as much as he did, sent us extremely kind and praiseful emails, and took the time and effort to create the video that he did. We fully support the use of our music for any and all non-commercial purposes, and are currently looking into open content ‘copyleft’ licenses for all our work.

That said, we do want to set the record straight. The ostensible ‘message’ of the video DOES NOT represent our views in any way shape or form, nor does Falak endorse the content of the video in any way. Though we are obviously proud of our rich Pakistani heritage and belonging to the great peoples that make up Pakistan, we feel we can be so without being blinded or silenced by patriotism. We are not proud of the Pakistani military as an institution, or of our nuclear weapons capability. Because we believe that the capacity to inflict death (even genocide) on a massive scale is not something anyone should be proud of. We are not proud of the military’s interventions in Pakistan’s politics, or its numerous interruptions of our nascent democracy. We are not proud of our current military dictator or his destructive policies. We are not proud of the ridiculous proportion of the Pakistani government budget that is spent on conventional and nuclear military capability when it is needed far more acutely for education, healthcare, affordable housing and other social services. We are not proud of Pakistan being the only state, other than the US, that has not accepted a “no first strike” nuclear policy. And so the list goes.

We certainly appreciate derivative works made from our music, especially when a fan takes the time to do them, and even when we disagree with the content or what is being portrayed. That is what we feel free expression is all about. But we also hope that our fans will appreciate that our encouragement of non-commercial uses of our music does not mean that we necessarily endorse everything all our fans have to say, and therefore, the need to not just give us credit for the music but also to use an appropriate disclaimer.

Given the importance of these issues, lets hear from you about all of them, from fans using our music in creative ways, to open content licenses for non-commercial reproduction of music, to views on the Pakistani military. If you have something to say about the above (and why shouldn’t you? Opinion and comment is as free as it is necessary) then stop by our blogs at www.myspace.com/falaknation.