Blog

2013 Future of Music Coalition - My Tweets, Rants & Reactions (Part 1 of 2)

I thought before too much time passes, I should collect my tweets and comments about The 2013 Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit held in Washington DC October 28-29, 2013. The 2013 World Series was happening at the same time, so FMC was not my top priority. Taking notes and tweeting about an event is also not my favorite activity but one that I occasionally delve into. (Grammar Girl believes we should be able to end sentences with prepositions, in case you were wondering abut that last sentence.)

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Fair Use and Copyright Abuse - My AIMP Talk Is SOLD OUT. Scalpers? Buehler?

Copying someone else's expression is allowed. Perhaps it is more accurate to state it this way: Copying someone else's expression is possible. Is permissible. Can happen. Can happen without negative consequences. (Fair use can mean that one has the right to hire expensive attorneys to fight back against a plaintiff's assertion that you have infringed her copyright. The "without negative consequences" is initially a theory - it often takes time, money, attorneys and experts to negate the "negative consequences.")

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Preying On Songwriters, My Winter Vacation & Re-Gifting

H E R E I S T H E P R O B L E M A S I S E E I TSometimes the songwriter's team members are playing for a different team, or perhaps playing a different sport. What I mean can be illustrated in a situation like this involving Songwriter(s) A and Songwriter(s) B.Songwriter A's publisher and/or attorney receive(s) a letter from songwriter B's publisher and/or lawyer telling Songwriter A that her/his new song has ripped off or infringed or copied or stolen Songwriter B's song. Publisher A/Attorney A informs Songwriter A that we better fix this. The way to fix this? Songwriter A simply and quickly needs to fork over half of A's copyright and future royalties on his/her song, and make sure that Songwriter B's name appears everywhere that Songwriter A's name appears on this song. All future royalties will be split between A and B.

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