Re: [ARSCLIST] ASCAP follows RIAA down the road guaranteed not to make friends

["Steven Smith, King of the House, Inc." <kingofthehouse@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

And as I noted a couple of days ago, there is such a thing as music you can
buy
on CD with performance rights and royalties included, from a variety of
publishers. They sell mostly to TV, radio and film producers but also to
theatres, and the music is in brand new recordings and often in any style
you
like (a lot of them are called "soundalike"..say you want The Pink Panther

Years and years ago, when I had a radio station, these jingle producers
would come in, ask local businesses if there was a song they wanted their
jingle to sound like. Then they would make is similar enough to recognize,
but different enough (or so they said) that a person could not get sued.
Someone here would know better than me, but I know that there is a formula
used as far as how much a tune has to be changed to avoid copyrite issues. I
think the whole He's So Fine vs My Sweet Lord defined some of that.
Theme but Mr. Mancini's estate has other ideas, and these music services
would
probably have one or two tracks that sound pretty close to it). And ASCAP
can't
do a thing about it if you've paid for it.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] ASCAP follows RIAA down the road guaranteed not to
make friends


> Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> On 03/08/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> >>> ----- Original Message ----- 
> >>> From: "Frank Strauss" <fbsdmd@xxxxxxxxx>
> >>>> On 8/1/07, Steven Smith, King of the House, Inc.
> >>>> <kingofthehouse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>>> Again, 20 years ago, I worked with a large theater chain. They were
> >>>> told they had to pay ASCAP fees for the music before and after the
> >>>> show. The owner of the huge Washington chain, instead, managed to
> >>>> locate a bunch of music that was in the public domain.
> >>>> How much public domain music is there?
> >>>>
> >>> Depends on where ya IS! In the US of A, there effectively isn't ANY
> >>> (at least as far as the sound recordings go...keep in mind that other
> >>> laws and terms cover other applicable musical royalties...!!). Here in
> >>> Canada, in the UK (thanks to a recent decision...!) and in most of
> >>> elsewhere, the copyright on a SOUND RECORDING lasts either 50 calendar
> >>> years or 50 years from the end of the year in which the given sound
> >>> recording was "fixed" (a term which, for some reason, scares my
> >>> cat...) :-)
> >> However, the question was about music rather than recordings.
> >>
> > And the answer remains the same! Each country has its own set of
copyright
> > laws, which define the terms for various forms/types of copyright as
well
> > as whether copyright can be renewed. In the case of the
publisher/composer
> > copyright, more information can be obtained from the entity which
collects
> > the relevant royalties; in the US of A, the Harry Fox Agency, and in
Canada
> > CMRRA. A small bit of web searching should lead listeners to the
appropriate
> > web site...which will also provide search facilities for the titles of
interest.
> >
> > Steven C. Barr
> >
> And as I noted a couple of days ago, there is such a thing as music you
can buy
> on CD with performance rights and royalties included, from a variety of
> publishers. They sell mostly to TV, radio and film producers but also to
> theatres, and the music is in brand new recordings and often in any style
you
> like (a lot of them are called "soundalike"..say you want The Pink Panther
> Theme but Mr. Mancini's estate has other ideas, and these music services
would
> probably have one or two tracks that sound pretty close to it). And ASCAP
can't
> do a thing about it if you've paid for it.
>
> dl