IDM Mailing Archive

Danny Ryan <Danny@kudos.demon.co.uk> wrote:

quoted 2 lines Copyright Control is another oft abused statement. Its proper use is

>Copyright Control is another oft abused statement. Its proper use is >for when no publisher or composer has "laid claim" to a piece of work.

AFAIK, COPYRIGHT CONTROL means that the composer has the rights to the song as a piece of musical work. Anyone who wants to reprint notes or lyrics etc has to get a permission from the composer. Anyone who releases that song on some phonographic media must pay royalties to the composer. Usually the composer signs a publishing-contract, which means that the rights is transferred to the publisher. The composer only gets some specified percentage of the royalties, like say 60 %, and in return the publisher takes care of promoting the song and tries to get labels interested in it etc. Very often though, the publisher and the label is the same company, and the publishing-contract merely means less money to the artist and more money to the label. My brother has been in this business for 15 years and has lost a lot of money that way, so I've learned never to sign a publishing contract without a _very_ good reason. I'm going to release my new 12" on MusicMan soon (it's called CyroLab - "Future Memories"), and on the backside of the cover one will find the text "publishing: COPYRIGHT CONTROL". Unfortunately many artists seem to dwell inside some sphere of artistic illusion and believe that they don't have to deal with the legal and economic side of being an artist. So please be careful. It is easy to sign away the rights to the rest of your work in this lifetime if you don't think a bit before you put your name on the dotted line. And if you don't know - ask someone who does. There are helpful societies for musicians here in Sweden and I'm sure there are similar organisations all over the world. But I digress. Danny wrote:

quoted 2 lines Its proper use is

>Its proper use is >for when no publisher or composer has "laid claim" to a piece of work.

If this would be the case, what should it say if a composer has laid claim to a piece? Hardly (P) I believe, I mean the work still isn't published just because he has the rights to it. Well, I'm no lawyer ,but AFAIK, it works like I explained above: as long as the work isn't published, it should read "publishing: COPYRIGHT CONTROL". Cheers, Fredrik A.