Quote:
Originally posted by Larry_OHF:
quote:
Originally posted by Djinn Raffo:
What about when a band performs a cover song?
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Headline news five years from now...
4 year old arrested (yes, arrested) by the RIAA for singing "Rubber ducky, you're the one" in the bathtub. [/QUOTE]You're missing the point. You can sing anything you like. Were the kids parents to record the kid and sell the CD they would be infringing copyright.
Apparently U2 were sued for Bono singing a few lines of "Where are the clowns, send in the clowns" on a CD release of a live concert.
If true, him singing it wasn't the issue, it was that they sold it on a CD without going through the proper channels.
When I was performing regularly in Australia, my band would fill out song lists of the songs we performed that went to APRA. We received tiny percentages of the clubs APRA fees. If we did originals we saw a bit of money. However, if we were doing someone elses songs, the writer would get some money. Not much, but enough that if a guy wrote a killer hit song, and every band played it for ten years in every club, he's see a justifiable return on creating something with that much demand.
The system relies on honesty, and as you are all aware, people being sued for minor copyright infringement doesn;t happen. But it offers protection and assurances that if someone makes a million of your work, you will be compensated. It means you can't be ripped off.
These kids stealing songs are ripping us off. Collectively ruining the entire industry by draining record companies of the cash they need to record new music.
Say a company records 50 albums in a year. Only one of those may sell. That one will fund the 50 for the next year. The sellers subsidise those that don't sell. I've had records made, subsidised by big selling records. Had the mp3 theft occured 10 years earlier than it did, I would not have a career.