Musicians don’t own ‘Mechanical Rights’
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- ‘The House believes that existing copyright laws do more harm than good.’
That was the proposition when The Economist fired up a debate on the subject.
“I remember back when Napster was a p2p (free) and the hearings were happening over the case of file sharing,” says Colorado Free Radio Durango in a Reader’s Write, continuing »»»
The day Don Henley showed up at the hearings wearing a suit and looking like a lawyer wining about his music being stolen, was the day I stopped listening to his music.
The truth is, Musicians do not own ‘Mechanical Rights’ the record Industry does!! That issue has always been about Mechanical Rights and this is the bottom line. When people talk about Copyrights there are many levels of this issue.
As a musican I have no problem with people sharing my music. If one person bought a CD and decided to share it with friends OH well I lose some money but I gain recognition. The so called p2p problem only harms those who have a lot to lose.
Just like the economic state of our country, people who have invested in a major corporate state find that there is a deep dark hole created from all the lofty economy. Buy a mercedes your payments are great, buy a used car it’s a one time payment.
Much like a CD, if I pay the internet providers for time on the internet and another peson does the same then if that person decides to share a CD they bought with me, then there should be no problem.
“Why don’t we arrest kids who go out and buy comic books and decide to trade them or kids who buy ‘trading cards’ and trade them,” he says, adding:
“Please tell me when the copyright laws actually protect the artist from real theft and I’ll copyright all my songs, until them I just as soon give them away.”
more harm than good – Copyright â for or against?, May 7, 2009
The Economist – Copyrights and wrongs, May 7, 2009
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May 8th, 2009 at 11:15 am
A voice of sanity!!
May 9th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Turn up the volume, I really like the sound of this; its got a beat I can dance to!
May 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Songwriters don’t own mechanical or performance rights rights either.
To have their songs recorded or performed by others, songwriters generally – some are the minimal exceptions – must first give up the songs to a publisher, who just happens to be (frequently) the publishing arm of the first record company to record the song. If not, the songwriter has to give up the songs to an independent publisher. Then about 95 to 98 percent of all the money made as profit from the songs is retained by the recording and publishing (a fishhook misnomer, as they publish almost nothing) firms.
Then the 2 to 5 percent of the money paid to songwriters is usually paid to the wrong ones, the ones with the ability to manipulate the black hole unaudited accounting system at the record companies, the publishers and the mechanical and performance rights organizations.
The scam is total.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
unfortunately the musicians are always getting screwed by attorneys and publishers…..most musicians don’t realize that copyrights are not as valuable as publishing rights……and the anti christ race is responsible…….once you forfeit your publishing rights…….then it is much harder to negotiate unless the publisher says ok….my point…..always keep your publishing rights……everything is one sided……….i am a publisher……for my music…..we need fairness……..a company/person pitching a song for a musician is good…….they deserve a commission for their effort….what they do not deserve is owning any rights to that song….unless there is equal money exchange for the publishing rights……once you give your publishing rights away…..then the publisher will receive monies…..even when they do nothing…..that is the scam…..when a copyright is less valuable than publishing rights…..then every musician must rebel against the system….how….thats another subject………..