The Hollywood Reporter: In 1976, Congress, sympathetic to musicians who often sign away rights for a pittance before they become stars, wrote Section 203 of the Copyright Act, which gives those who sell music rights an opportunity to "terminate" grants after 35 years, provided they give proper notice between two and 10 years in advance.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tom Petty, Bob Dylan Vs. Music Labels: The Industry's New Copyright War
The Hollywood Reporter: In 1976, Congress, sympathetic to musicians who often sign away rights for a pittance before they become stars, wrote Section 203 of the Copyright Act, which gives those who sell music rights an opportunity to "terminate" grants after 35 years, provided they give proper notice between two and 10 years in advance.
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4 comments:
This seems like a really complicated issue that can't be completely explained in a single article. After reading it, the question I am left with is, are they taking into account who actually wrote the songs? Say an old, famous song was sung by X singer, and appears on X's album, but was written by other people. Do those other people get anything from the copyright changing? Or can the singer only file for the copyright if he/she wrote AND sang the song?
In general, I'm against this law. However shitty the deal was, the artists signed for it. They knew what they were doing. I can't go back to a store if I got ripped off on something, and expect the "sympathy" Congress is giving to artists. That being said, it's possible I would think differently if I knew more about this law.
The wording of this article suggests that the author (or editor) is sympathetic with the record labels, not the artists. I quote: “…U.S. copyright law that is about to allow a whole bunch of top artists to snatch back rights to their music, potentially forcing labels to pay big money to reacquire songs they have owned for decades”. Saying that the artists are “snatching” back the rights to their own music, and “forcing” labels to pay them for their own work implies that the artists are in the wrong. This is an interesting view for a Hollywood magazine to take, I would have thought a magazine focusing on Hollywood would be a little more supportive of the artists it covers, but I suppose media will do anything to incite controversy.
Every time I hear about record labels, the words litigation soon follow. It's ridiculous, and frustrating because as articles have noted in the past, with the advent of the internet and other distribution methods, the record labels are becoming obsolete and their just trying to stay rooted in the past so they can keep making money. I'm glad the artists have a chance to reclaim the rights to their own songs, which is how it should be. They made the effort to create those songs, they both the time and effort to create that content, so they should be able to be paid accordingly, and I think for a number of artists, this is going to start giving them the opportunity to do that. If that comes at the expense of the record labels, then so be it. It's not like they had a true interest in the music besides making money off it anyway, and slowly but surely, they are losing the ability to do that even, as the artist starts to be able to reassert themselves as the primary owners of their own work.
I like that the artists get their music back. I mean, of course they get a cut through the years, but this is a great way for artists who had to sell their souls to make sell their music to get back the rights. And the music industry has certainly gotten a fairly solid chunk of the profits. While I recognize the damage that could be done to the music industry since it is the money from former successes that makes riskier investments (such as new artists) more possible, but I think with 35 years of profit from one group, they are claiming the profit when sales are highest (when the artist is new). The only large profit time they do not make is when the artist dies if the artist dies after 35 years. I think they can handle that.
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