after talking to a musician friend who used to be in a big-label band that,
along with their own material, did cover versions of popular songs, it
seems that sony probably has a case in what they did with the knights of
the jaguar track. apparently, copyright law states that you can't stop
someone from recording your track as long as the writing credit reflects
the truth and any money made from the recording (figured, i assume, as a
percentage of sales) is payed to the original writer or writers. the only
stipulation is that the song cannot in any way be changed (this may explain
why the sony guy said explicitly in his note to u.r. that they had
reproduced the track 'tone by tone' -- i.e., they didn't change anything).
the aforementioned friend ran up against this scenario when his band was
going to put a version of "brick house" with slightly different vocal parts
on a record and were informed the version couldn't be used unless the
vocals were the same as in the original. no permission from the writers (in
this case, the commodores), however, was necessary -- only credit and cash.
fwiw,
sc
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