On the Net: Garfield, Radiohead remixed online

Remixes for things as disparate as Garfield and Radiohead prove a Web truism: Let it go.

Copyright holders -- whether corporations, publishers or artists -- are right to defend their ownership of material online. But if they want a dynamic Web presence, they're best to allow some give-and-take with the audience -- and be ready to watch the strange results.

Among the most remarkable sites to arise this year has been Garfield Minus Garfield. The premise is simple. Dan Walsh, who created the site, has removed Garfield from Jim Davis' comic strip.

By taking out the strip's star, Walsh has given "Garfield" an entirely new spin. Without Garfield's sarcastic comments (which were always silent bubbles of thought), the humor turns darker, laying bear the sad life of the feline's owner, Jon Arbuckle. We see only his manic depression.

In a recent entry (one strip is posted daily), Arbuckle sleepily strides to the front door in his pajamas. In the second box, he shouts out the door, "You'll never take me alive!" The final box is nothing but an open door, a quiet reflection of his empty life.

The site has been a bona fide hit, pulling in hundreds of thousands of views everyday, sometimes including Davis himself. Davis, whose fully populated strip can be found at the official site www.garfield.com, has voiced his admiration of the site.

Rather than rail against the alteration of his work, Davis has been pleased by the distorted but revealing version of "Garfield." And after the roundly panned and largely ignored movie adaptations of "Garfield," a little good publicity can't hurt.

Radiohead, too, has been liberal about its work online. Not only did the band famously offer its recent album "In Rainbows" for free last fall, but Radiohead didn't stop there. They've performed several webcasts and, perhaps most interestingly, offered their song "Nude" for fans to remix however they like.

At www.radioheadremix.com, people were invited to download "Nude," broken up into separate pieces -- the guitar track, the drums, etc. The individual tracks, or "stems," of "Nude" are no longer available for purchase, but you can listen to the intriguing results and vote on your favorite. (Voting closes June 1.)

As of Wednesday, the most popular remix of the falsetto-rich ballad was created by the electronic outfit Spor. Also worth listening to is the remix currently ranked fifth by a young buzzed-about group whose name begins "Holy." (The second word of the band's name isn't suitable to print.)

The band has said that the "Nude" remix has drawn more than 2.5 million visitors with more than 2,000 remixes have been created.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Charlie Rose Parody

Charlie Rose has it tough. The PBS talk show host has such a distinct manner that he's proven great fodder for parody. It's easy: put a round wooden table in a darkened room and you're already half way to spoofing "Charlie Rose." Comedian Michael Showalter took inspiration from Rose for his "The Michael Showalter Showalter" series (find it on collegehumor.com), and Christopher Guest's mockumentary "For Your Consideration" made a brief dig at Rose's habit of interrupting guests. In a recently posted YouTube video, though, Rose interviews himself. In "'Charlie Rose' by Samuel Beckett," filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr. cuts and edits Rose so that he appears to be interviewing himself: http://www.youtube.com/user/andrewfilipponejr. The resulting video has a weird, musical rhythm.