1968: Beatles release The White Album.

2003: Jay-Z releases The Black Album.

2004: Hip-hop DJ Danger Mouse takes both, remixes and makes something new: The Grey Album.

2004: Beatles label EMI sends cease and desist letters to websites hosting Danger Mouse’s reworking, citing copyright violations. Anticorporatelabel music activists get their backs up, come up with Grey Tuesday, an internet protest in which websites will either turn grey in support of Danger Mouse and Downhillbattle or will actually host the The Grey Album for download — a virtual form, one suspects, of civil disobedience for the 21st century. Wandering copyright zealot Lawrence Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sign on to lend their support. RIAA presumably prepares to take notes of potential violators, argues (justifiedly under current law) that Grey Album likely violates United States copyright law for use of copyrighted material without license from holder.

2004: Dahlberg listens to Grey Album, declares it “okay”.