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.