Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] I like it

David Schultz davidschultz5000 at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 23 18:54:09 MST 2004


Beth,

Under U.S. copyright law (and I'm pretty sure this is
more or less universal as with most copyright matters)
a songwriter(s) has the right to be the first to
record and release their song, or decide who will be
the first. After it's been released for public
consumption though, it's fair game to be recorded for
another artist's album release, and the writer has to
shut up and put up with the royalties.
In fact, an article I read some time ago gave me the
impression that even recording a song for an
advertisement is a grey area. One undoubtedly needs
permission to use the original, but if it's
re-recorded and then used in an ad, the writer can
sue, and would almost certainly get more money coming
to them than just the royalties as well as more than
if the company had negotiated to use the song, but the
ad wouldn't be necessarily be pulled unless they could
prove some harm had been done.
In short, it's a good idea to ask to use a song for
commercial purposes beforehand if the company doesn't
want to pay more for it in the long run, but it's not
a requirement.
Then again, I'm no lawyer, and I don't have my source
in front of me, so I could be wrong.
But for sure, you don't need permission to record a
previously public song for musical reasons, and the
writer has no recourse if they don't like the results.

Cheers,
Dave

--- Beth Curran <bcurran at columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> Hmm.  What's involved in getting permission to
> record another artist's
> song?  Clearly, this is different than asking to use
> the original Oils
> recording.  I can't imagine the Oils' copyright
> attorney saying:  "you
> suck as musicians and I wouldn't have your CDs
> within 500 meters of my
> house, so you can't record this Oils classic."  I
> would think a more
> likely scenario would be that anyone could record
> their own version of a
> song so long as they didn't play fast and loose with
> the lyrics and so
> long as the proper royalties were paid.  I would
> assume the copyright
> lawyers would want a final review as to content -
> say for example
>  
> How can we fuckin' dance when our fuckin' beds are
> burning
>  
> would not pass muster, but so long as no "editorial"
> changes were made,
> if the recording has no artistic merit - well,
> that's not the lawyers'
> business to judge.
>  
> Or if I am completely incorrect - which I certainly
> can be since I don't
> know anything about law - and the copyright holder
> does have the right
> to reject accurate but lousy versions of his song,
> perhaps they recorded
> this without getting the proper permission? - Beth
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
>
[mailto:powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu]
> On Behalf Of Kate
> Parker Adams
> Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 1:10 PM
> To: powderworks at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
> Subject: Re: [Powderworks] I like it
>  
> LOL!  
> 
> Come on guys!  Shocking as it is, this just might
> help keep Pete in
> hiking trails and public appearances, Rob in thrift
> shop drums, Jim and
> Martin in tubes for some ancient funky tube amps,
> and Bones in bottles
> of wine for the ladies for sometime to come.
> 
> And hey, who knows? When that tab of E wears off and
> the binky (paci,
> dummy, sucker) is put away for the morning, some
> junior raver might just
> go hunting for the original material.  Can't be all
> that bad.
> 
> -kPa
> 
>  At 11:55 AM 2/21/04 -0800, Sebastian Balcombe
> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I have to admit, It was shocking to hear the classic
> in that techno
> format,
> but reading all your guys hilarious comments, I was
> expecting much
> worse!!!
> 
> Plus the amount of money the oils are probably
> getting from the
> royalties
> could fund future oil DVD's/CD's  or whatever
> 
> I'm all for it
> 
> I seriously might buy it
> 
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