Re: forward: a protest against sony

["Mr. Tough" <electricfriends@hotmail.com>]

All my other posts in this matter will be private, since I know it's not 
really on topic. :

>yet you say later..
>
>">Obviously Sony think that they can take anyones music, without 
>permission,
> >and re-release it without credit....."

Actually, I only wrote the paragraph at the very top. It would be a good 
idea if we took the rest with a grain of salt, as with all accusations of 
this nature. I also noticed that Sony's letter wasn't in German and had 
several spelling errors. Some meaning can be lost or gained in 
translation. 
Even if it was originally in English, the text wasn't copied exactly, 
since 
there were so many errors. However I do believe the general meaning of the 
e-mail (that Sony blatantly infringed on someone's rights to their 
composition--something that major labels would sue a band out of existence 
for.)


>i thought ANYONE could cover a tune - as long as they credited it's 
>authors
>andpaidthe mechanicals, adhering to publishing laws, etc,.
>
>pls fill me in here

According to American copyright law, you need the author's (or copyright 
holder's if they're signed) permission to legally release a cover tune. 
With 
the permission, the author usually requires original credit and payment. I 
would imagine that German copyright law would be similar in this aspect, 
as 
this is the specific purpose that copyright was created for. While Sony 
was 
offering payment and publishing credit, they specifically avoided speaking 
to the original artists until the records were already on the shelves. The 
A 
& R rep did this because he knew the band was 'anti-corporate' and would 
not 
grant them permission.

You can legally reproduce (or cover) a song if the purpose is for 
"Criticism 
& Comment" (where copyright law meets the 1st amendment), or education 
(under "Fair Use"). The former includes song parodies. Once again, this is 
American copyright law.

You can often 'get away' with covering a song if:
1) It does not interfere with the sale of the original.
2) You're not famous and it's not your biggest song.
3) The copyright owner (often a record label) never finds out about it.

I believe it's technically illegal to cover a song in a live show, but big 
famous bands do that all the time and never seem to suffer from it.

I betchya that Sony tried to copyright that techno song for themselves. I 
don't know for sure, but the majors are crazy about securing copyrights 
for 
everything. They even copyright sound effects CD's!

Mr. Tough

p.s. thanks for reading this far!
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