Hi Dark, Well, the copyright laws may have been intended to protect the original author rather than the distributors, but that seems to have been reversed in recent years. I know of several cases where various musicians have had to go to court in order to get the copyrights back from their prior recording company because the company assumes its own distribution copyrights on that music preventing the original band or artist from singing or playing that song with a different company or label. Some band might make a song with Warner and switch to RCA. If they want to play that song live, record a live album using RCA, etc they must go to court and get copyright control of their own music from Warner even though they created it in the first place. Talk about screwed up copyright laws!
For example, John Fogerty, the leade singer and guitar player for Creedents Clearwater Revival, left the band in the early 80's to create his own solo career under a different music label.Even though most of the songs in the Creedents Clearwater Revival catalog were written by John Fogerty, created by him, he was not permited to sing, play, or make reference to his prior work since he was under a different music label. Eventually, he turned around and sued the record company and won. However, it wasn't until the mid 90's until he was able to resume copyright control of the Creedents' catalog which is ridiculous since he is the man behind that bands music and fame. Sadly he isn't the only person who got screwed over by a greedy record company. Dianna Ross, the lead singer for the Supremes, also had something of a copyright battle with the record companies for her music. Like John Fogerty she decided to go out on her own, create some new albums under her own name, and found out as long as she wasn't with the Supremes she wasn't legally permitted to sing or play any of the hits from the Supremes catalog. Eventually, around 1987 she battled the record company and ended up assuming copyright control over the Supremes catalog. Music that should have been her's by right in the first place. Go figure. However, the point I want to make is there is a distressing tend for publishers, record companies, and other distributors to assume the copyrights of any works they publish.Even if they don't have full control they usually get some sort of secondary copyright that prevents the author or artist from publishing using some other company which simply isn't fair at all. Cheers! On 6/15/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > The odd thing is, if you go back in time that is not how copywrite started, > > or what it was intended to do. it was not the protection of the printer or > distributor, but of the author, so that nobody could claime credit or > financial compensation for his/her work without being the one who actually > came up with the idea. > > I hope the eventual outcome will be a return to that sort of status, where > distributors change their focus from actually distributing a product and > attemptinng to create demmand for it, but advertizing the author's own work > > so that people who wish can gain the music, art, literature or whatever > directly from them, with compensations made for their work, not for the > ownership of a specific copy of it. > > This is the way that sites like podiobooks and darker projects work, and > I've donated cash to those sites myself because I like what they do, and my > > disagreement with publishers and distributers isn't with the authors of the > > work originally, ---- indeed if I had my choice, I'd much rather just send > money directly to the author for an accessible copy. > > Indeed, now that things like books can be written and distributed without! > the need of printers, publishers etc, I would hope to see these people > disappear altogether, or at least take a back seat, only providing physical > > books and cds to those who want them as semi ornamental items, rather than > people just interested in the words or music itself. > > We'll have to see though, sinse the hole economic status of the world is > going to hell in a hand baskit at the moment, thanks to corporate interest > in control of nations and too many self interested parties working up > massive debts that nobody can actually pay, and I'm fairly certain the next > > 10 or 15 years will se a major crash of one sort or another. Hopefully > people will learn better afterwards, assuming we get through it. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
