Often I get asked what can someone do if data is taken from them and processed without their consent.

Ozzy Osbourne, of the band Black Sabbath, offers one example of how to respond:

@KAYNEWEST ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A [SECTION] OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF ‘WAR PIG’ FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS.

REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY.

Apparently Ye used it anyway without consent. Then Osbourne started to very vocally complain on social media and amplify an already severe backlash against Ye, linked to a long history of causing harm including hate speech.

Notably, there’s a question of data ownership here. Black Sabbath’s famous War Pigs song was heavily inspired (if not a direct style copy) from Black musicians promoting peace and against war.

The band’s “innovative” sound borrowed heavily from a long tradition of “wailing” in American blues.

That being said, Black Sabbath claims their music was meant to fight for the working class against powerlessness, so it makes sense they would distance themselves in every way possible from Ye’s toxic aristocratic brand of overly-centralized power that spreads hate.