Cheers!

And competition for the distribution channel is what these JOKERS FEAR the most!!!

Good job, and keep posting insightful comments. I as well as many others enjoy reading them!

Let me show an examples:

Peermusic, a very large music publisher, says my father assigned 20 songs to them in 1952. I disagree on this assignment claim. My opinion is that the songs were obtained by Peermusic, as a Peermusic letter said, WITHOUT THE AUTHOR SUSPECTING”. I swear that this unbelievabe story is true.

In 2001 we sued, Peermusic because they were licensing to others songs we owned. During trial it was revealed that many of the songs were never copyright registered by Peermusic. At the time, 1952 to 1976, if a song was published (a Peermusic obligation as a publisher who had to exploit all songs assigned to them) without a copyright registration, the copyright was lost and the song went into the public domain, feature of the law has been eliminated.

The Peer explanation (I swear that this unbelievabe story is true) : By not registering the songs they would extend the copyright period and the initial period of protection of 28 years did not apply. Peermusic said it was a technique they used to extend copyright. In my opinion the so called technique is just an illegal trick to beat the law. Peermusic claimed in effect that by not registering the songs, then Peermusic would have rights per the new law effect in 1978, to 70 years after the death of the author. Since my father died in 1993, the songs now have rights until year 2063, for Peermusic, the judge said, I call this lack of registration the COPYRIGHT DURATION TRICK.

The Peermusic allegations (perjury may be a better word) would mean that Peer enjoyed protected ownership of 111 years whereas in 1952 the already expanded copyright protection was for two 28 year periods, initial and a renewal, for a total of 56 years. So, Peermusic doubled the copyright protection period for them by using what the COPYRIGHT DURATION TRICK. Peermusic explained the COPYRIGHT DURATION TRICK to the judge who, it seems thought it was a good idea, because he said the songs belonged to Peermusic because (I swear this is true) Peer “exercised its rights by making a timely filing for renewal is, therefore, the present legal owner of the renewal copyrights in the aforementioned songs.”. Of course there was no timely filing for registration because as Peermusic said, they used the COPYRIGHT DURATION TRICK of not filing at all. I swear that this unbelievabe story is true.

BTW, by Peermusic not registering the songs, the renewal period after 28 never arrived, thereby depriving the author or the heirs, their right to get the songs back, as required by the law. It meant that the COPYRIGHT DURATION TRICK not only extended the copyright duration but it also took away the legal rights thet belonged to the author (my father) of his heirs. This meant nothing to the judge. I swear that this unbelievabe story is true.

As we can see from this case, a few lies, a few tricks and some perjury can get copyright extension far beyond what the law allow, and then what the law allows is far beyond what was the constitutional intention.

This is why there are 277 claims of ownership for the Star spangled banner, a song that is in the public doamin. Here the trick is different. Just change the “arrangement”and say that the newly arranged song is yours.

Actually the list of tricks is endless. Someone should write a book about this. A proposed title: THE COPYRIGHT LAW IS A HUGE SCAM.

It is all a matter of tricks.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com