[Dixielandjazz] Copyrights

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Yeah Tom I hear you.  When I was in college I played clubs a lot and after
the first few gigs the ASCAP (???) guy showed up and hit us for $15. Those
were 1960 dollars and was equal to one sideman's pay.  I told my agent about
it and he told me to mention his name next time they came around which I did
each time.  We were never hit up again.  We would get a sorry sir it's been
taken care of.  Sometimes it was good to have a made man as your agent.
Actually I think that it was a way to extort money from everyone in the
entertainment business in southern Illinois.  If you ever watched any of the
old untouchables series on TV the area was called Little Egypt.  If anyone
is curious why it was called that I'll tell you in another post.  I don't
know if the mob was collecting the fee or if the ASCAP guy was afraid of
them but whichever I never had to pay again.

Another extortion by the government was the Cabaret Tax.  That one kept live
music out of a lot of places too.  Everyone has his hand out in this
business.
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <TCASHWIGG at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Copyrights


> In a message dated 1/27/05 9:38:31 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> sign.guy at charter.net writes:
>
> >
> > I think everyone would agree that trademarks should  be able to be
extended
> > almost indefinitely.  Patents are good for 17 years to prevent
monopolies
> > and big business from dominating technology and products.  It's hard to
> > understand why written or other works of art should be virtually
protected
> > forever except on an individual basis.  Like anything there are two
sides to
> > the story.
> >
>
> AHHH yes, so now we HAVE THREE MONOPOLIES operating to protect the poor
> songwriters, ASCAP BMI and SESAC. so they can't be construed as
Monopolies, sort of
> like Microsoft and Apple in today's world.   And we have the Teamsters and
> the AFL CIO trade unions, not to mention the American Federation of
Musicians
> and The Actors Guild, etc,etc, In the founding days the Families divided
up the
> territories for collection.
>
> Some of you folks must remember the old NUMBERS rackets and how they
> operated, with the Runners to collect the cash every day.   hummm.  Not to
mention how
> and why Insurance companies were originated.   Perhaps we should all go
back
> and watch the God Father again.  :))   Those were the Good OLE Days
remember?
>
> Or the division of Pacific Bell, who had a monopoly on our telephone
service
> in California, sure glad it is gone now and we have two phone companies to
> hate especially when we find out that no matter who you choose to be your
phone
> company, the same company  (albeit under a name change) still delivers you
> service to your house through their phone lines, and when you need repairs
the
> same guys shows up with a newly painted truck with the new Logo on it.
>
>
> There ought to be a law!!!     You can bet there is.  :))
> Cheers,
>
> Tom Wiggins
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>