Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
Nigel Hanley wrote:
Cecil, in many ways I agree with you. Full stop. I 'm equally not
trying to pick a fight, but am merely attempting to understand why the
original owners of such monumental works of popular music such as the
Beatles' library are forced to undergo legal proceedings to retain
their work , or archival works of genius such as Coltrane are up for
grabs by Hal Leonard, ex-drummer.
One thing to be aware of: years ago, the US firm of Hal Leonard got more
into music printing and distribution, and over the years has become
printer and distributor for the catalogs of a number of other
publishers. I don't know who the owner to the copyright of Coltrane's
music is, but there is a significant possibility that Hal Leonard is
merely printing and distributing this material on behalf of the owner of
the copyright, just as it does with the catalogs of G. Schirmer, the
Fred Bock Companies, Walton Music, and others.
Interestingly, the ownership of the involved copyrights is
so murky that even the publishers have no clue anymore.
Actual story -- years ago I discovered that a then
out-of-print concert band arrangement I had just purchased
(and dearly wanted to perform with my community band) was
missing the low brass and percussion from trombone on down
the score. The work was printed and distributed by Hal
Leonard, but the music was "published" (i.e. copyright was
owned) by a different company. So I contacted Hal Leonard
for permission to photocopy the missing parts since they
couldn't provide them for me. I was told by Hal Leonard's
legal office that I needed to get that permission from the
actual publisher, that Hal Leonard as a corporation didn't
have the right to give that permission. They gave me the
phone number to call the other publisher. Which I did, and
was told that they no longer controlled the copyright since
they had licensed all that to Hal Leonard, so I needed to
contact Hal Leonard for the permission.
So this wasn't a case of the right hand not knowing what the
left hand was doing, it was a case of the right hand not
knowing what the right hand was doing!
--
David H. Bailey
[email protected]
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