In 1991, Negativland’s infamous U2 single was sued out of existence for trademark infringement, fraud, and copyright infringement for poking fun at the Irish mega-group’s anthem “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” In 1992, Negativland’s magazine-plus-CD "The Letter U and the Numeral 2" was sued out of existence for trying to tell the story of the first lawsuit. In 1995 Negativland released "Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2," a 270-page book-with-CD to tell the story of both lawsuits and the fight for the right to make new art out of corporately owned culture.

The overwhelming (and very funny) "Fair Use" takes you deep inside Negativland’s legal, ethical, and artistic odyssey in an unusual examination of the ironic absurdities that ensue when corporate commerce, contemporary art and pre-electronic law collide over one 13-minute recording (and to hear the actual single itself, go here:
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - 1991 A Capella Mix (7:15)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - Special Edit Radio Mix (5:46)

The book presents the progression of documents, events and results chronologically, contains the suppressed magazine in its entirety, and goes on to add much more that has happened since, to illuminate this modern saga of criminal music. Also included is a (at the time) definitive appendix of legal and artistic references on the fair use issue, including important court decisions, and a foreword written by the son of the American U-2 spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Packaged inside the book is a full-length CD containing a new 45-minute collage piece by Negativland, “Dead Dog Records”- which is both about artistic appropriation and an extensive example of it- plus a 26-minute “review” of the U.S. Copyright Act by Crosley Bendix, Director of Stylistic Premonitions for the Universal Media Netweb.