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Conference napalm::commusic_v1

Title:* * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * *
Notice:Conference has been write-locked. Use new version.
Moderator:DYPSS1::SCHAFER
Created:Thu Feb 20 1986
Last Modified:Mon Aug 29 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2852
Total number of notes:33157

2667.0. "Song Writer's Rights" by KOBAL::DICKSON (I watched it all on my radio) Tue Jun 18 1991 19:33

    I know a song writer who writes and performs her own stuff (mostly
    folk music) and makes and sells tapes of same.  She has released three
    cassettes so far.
    
    Recently she told me that someone else had recorded one of her songs,
    so I said, "Great.  So you are getting royalties?"  She said no,
    she wasn't.  See, this guy helped write the song.  That is, he wrote
    the words to two of the verses.
    
    I told her that I thought she was still entitled to royalties of some
    cents per copy sold, unless she had signed away all rights.  She had
    not done that.
    
    I thought I had seen this issue discussed here, but I can't find it.
    Maybe it was in one of those "How to Sell your Songs" books.  Anybody
    have any information I can pass on to the song writer?
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2667.1anyone want to practice law in here?PIANST::JANZENA Refugee From Performance ArtWed Jun 19 1991 12:485
	Well, I'm not a lawyer, so I may be wrong, but my advice is:
	she should get a lawyer.
	Yeah, one of those books will help her see that she has rights to
	her own work, you'd better believe it.
	Tom
2667.2I'm not a lawyer, but I play one in COMMUSIC...DELNI::SMCCONNELLNext year, in JERUSALEM!Wed Jun 19 1991 15:4114
    I'm no lawyer either, but if I remember correctly, the "catch" in the
    new (197-something) copyright law is that in spite of the fact that you
    own a song when you create it, the first person to formally register it
    is the official owner.
    
    I can't imagine a co-writer producing a project that included a song I
    co-wrote without my knowing that song would be on the album...it sounds
    like the problem is deeper than legal...
    
    If you are going to seek a lawyer, seek a copyright lawyer.
    
    Free advice, worth every penny ;-)
    
    Steve