[Dixielandjazz] Regarding BMI...FROM JOHN SOULIS

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Well I do like your approach to it better Paul, but having been in
a copyright infringement suit with the RIAA and BMI & ASCAP and the FBI 
and,
the court system I can assure you that the Licensing organization 
definitely enforces
the copyright law because their lawyers show up in mass to intimidate 
the court ,
  Judge and anybody else in the room and wins every time because nobody 
wants to even
attempt to unravel the long trail of interpretations that they have 
meticulously created over the past
sixty or better years to control it all.  Nobody save the US government 
could possibly have
enough money to fight them and their barrage or charges and self 
created formulas to back them up.

The only people who make any money in the end are the Lawyers and the 
ASCAP and BMI  lawyers
  always get the lions share of it, I know because I won and they got 
all the money anyway. :))

I refer back to my former post on this issue.

cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: paul.edgerton at eds.com
To: Tcashwigg at aol.com
Cc: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Regarding BMI...FROM JOHN SOULIS

   Unfortunately, John Soulis made some mistakes in his summary of
copyright (not "copy write") law and licensing organizations.

Not to deprecate John's work, but to clarify, here are a few of the ones
I noticed:

#1: Licensing organization do not enforce copyright law, the courts do
that.  The licensing agencies just collect licensing fees, usually by
means of a blanket license.  If no fees are due (say you perform only
your own original music and nobody else does) then the licensing
agencies have no interest in you at all.

#3: The profit motive has no bearing on the collection of license fees.
When you use somebody else's intellectual property, you owe them a fee
(absent some other agreement).  Some types of use require written
permission, others can get a "compulsory license."  Some limited use is
permitted under the Fair Use Doctrine, but just what constitutes "fair
use" is a slippery thing.

#4: In the US, copyright is inherent in the work itself.  You are
entitled to copyright protection even if you don't include the copyright
symbol (c) date and name of the owner.  However, doing so protects your
rights in some other countries and can help establish ownership in the
event of a dispute.

The answer to the question "Where does the money go?" is: some of it is
retained by the agency as a fee or commission, the rest is paid to the
copyright holders (not necessarily the author) in the form of royalties.


If you really want to know the gory details, read the Copyright Act of
1976, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and then discuss them
with your favorite entertainment law practitioner.  Or just take the
easy way out and stick with public domain source material and your own
original works.  Many people just don't worry about it.  After all, you
can't get blood from a turnip.  Right?

-- Paul Edgerton

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