vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 12, 2011 22:16:28 GMT 1
Too late to sue her now though.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 16, 2011 23:31:03 GMT 1
Scott Fitzgerald v BustedThis is a famous one, with a less-than-famous link to the Eurovision Song Contest. The claim itself is under the anodyne name of McPhail v Bourne. Could be anyone. But McPhail is Kiley McPhail, known professionally as Kiley Fitzgerald, because he is the son of runner-up Scott Fitzgerald… Why was he suing Busted? He and fellow claimant Owen Doyle were original members of Busted, but left in October 2001. The nature of their being in Busted is, in legal terms, one of those technicalities that bands may forget to think about. Some form themselves into limited companies, but many are what are called “mere” partnerships at will. In other words, all financial dealings are shared equally between them. One member punts a fan at a concert, all the other members are liable to pay compensation. And the victim can get the money in any combo, so if the drummer is the only one with money, he may have to pay for what the bassist did; he can then get equal shares from his partners, but if they've got no money, that's his, not the puntee's, tough luck. And that’s what Busted were when a manager put McPhail and Doyle together with James Bourne and Mat Willis. An equal partnership. At least, that’s what McPhail and Doyle said. In October 2001, fed up with the lack of progress, the four Busted members sacked their manager; Doyle wanting to form a boy band, McPhail wanting a non-existent solo career. Within days Bourne and Willis re-employed the manager, possibly glad to be rid of the less rock-oriented duo. But the four had written songs together. So in March 2002 there was a meeting where the songs were divvied up; McPhail and Doyle took 2, Bourne and Willis (now joined by Charlie Simpson) another 4. Those four songs just happened to be “What I Go To School For”, “Year 3000”, “Psycho Girl” and “Sleeping With The Light On”…hm. A few bob in royalties. McPhail and Doyle decided that they would like some, and sued for their songwriting contributions to those songs. How could they, when they had given up the rights in those songs? For three reasons. One, the manager forced them to sign, they said. Obviously if you are forced to sign an agreement, you haven’t really agreed. They didn’t go quite so far as to say they were physically forced to do so, but that the influence the manager had on them was so strong, they felt they had no choice. Otherwise their pop names would have been mud. Two, the manager did not give them crucial information that they had a right to know. Three, as Busted was a partnership, partners had to be candid with each other about partnership assets. Bourne and Willis kept very quiet about signing a major deal three days before the settlement meeting… Naturally Busted denied the claims and the thing went to Court. When you have a “he said she said” dispute like this, witness evidence is often crucial. And the judge thought the manager and Bourne were particularly believable on the key issues – McPhail and Doyle a little guilty of imaginative reconstruction. The judge decided that McPhail and Bourne effectively sacked the manager in October 2001 when they left, so the manager owed no further duty to give information to them them; that, before March 2002, Busted was not even a partnership, more a loose association of four boys who happened to write the odd song together; there were no threats from the manager to get them to sign the agreement, just advice to move on positively and, indeed, the manager introduced them to some other industry figures; there was no need for Bourne and Willis to mention the major deal they had because McPhail and Doyle had left. A pretty comprehensive victory for Busted and boss. Ki Fitzgerald went on to form Eyes Wide Open and is now calling himself the Bad Boy of Opera. Straight outta Verona. Fudge alone knows where Owen Doyle is. To be fair, he seems to have done as well outside Busted as his ex-bandmates…
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 22, 2011 23:08:43 GMT 1
A contract must be fair. The record industry is pretty bad at this. For logical reasons – the music industry is predicated on failure, the 5% successful paying for the 95% that are not – so when a label gets a success it does not want to lose to a rival label. But the provisions should be mutual as far as they can be. If a label gets its mitts on an act, it needs to play fair to that act; not sign up everyone and then pick and choose. So, here’s a smorgasbord of acts who successfully sued their labels for freedom from their oppression.
Tony Macaulay: the first person to beat The Man, Macaulay is now a composer of musicals. In 1966 he signed a deal with Schroeder Music for five years, automatically extended to 10 if he earned more than five grand in royalties. The trouble was that it was an exclusive deal without any corresponding obligation on Schroeder to publish any of Macaulay’s songs. In other words, if they did not release anything, Macaulay couldn’t either. This is unfair; if Schroeder didn’t want his work, he should not be denied the chance to take it elsewhere. What’s more, Macaulay wasn’t being paid. So he would be denied the right to earn a living if Schroeder decided not to bother with his songs. Even worse, he made the £5,000 target easily – soon after signing the deal he co-wrote the above song, which gave him a number one…the ensuing dispute went all the way to the House of Lords, which ruled in Macaulay’s favour.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: When Holly Johnson left (frustrated at being essentially an industry plaything) he claimed the agreement FGTH had signed with Trevor Horn’s ZTT was unenforceable as a restraint of trade. The deal had FGTH signed up for seven months, fair enough, but subject to options that ZTT could exercise to extend it up to 9 years. With no obligation to release. And ZTT kept the copyright in FGTH recordings that were unreleased. The effect was to sterilize Johnson’s output; he couldn’t even form a new band without ZTT’s say-so. Too restrictive, unfair.
Stone Roses: the absolute acme of unfairness. Silvertone Records signed up the Roses to an exclusive deal, lasting seven years, during which time Silvertone had no obligation to release anything. What’s more, the agreement would be extended until Silvertone did release a certain number of records in the United States. So Silvertone could effectively stop the Roses from ever releasing anything, anywhere in the solar system (yes, the contract defined the territory where the contract applied as that). And once it did come to an end, the Roses would be prevented from releasing anything for 10 years. On top of that, the Roses would have had to make (and pay for) as many videos as Silvertone wanted, Silvertone could use the band for merchandising deals without their say-so, Silvertone could terminate the agreement for £1,500 max without the Roses having any such rights, Silvertone could withhold royalties for the slightest breach of contract, and even those royalties would only be on 90% of sales. So self-evidently unfair even Silvertone’s executives sent each other emails expressing doubts about it…
Oh, and I've cheated with the song. This was NOT released on Silvertone, but on FM Revolver, who raided their archives and dug out a demo produced for them before the Roses had success. This led to another legal case, as the disgruntled Roses went around to see Paul Birth (FM boss) and chucked paint over him and his girlfriend...
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Mar 23, 2011 0:34:32 GMT 1
^ and of course Wham! Vs Innervision!
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 23, 2011 8:45:41 GMT 1
And a number of others, Michael himself lost to Sony, but Gilbert O' Sullivan won his battle. Just picked out the most outrageous ones.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 25, 2011 22:24:05 GMT 1
Lord Rockingham's XINovelty Christmas hits are not a new thing. The fifties saw them from Lita Roza, Dickie Valentine and the Goons, inter alia. One of the biggest was this Caledonian creation, three weeks at the top of the chart and another four lodged behind Conway Twitty's immortal "It's Only Make Believe" (also a top ten for Child, Glen Campbell and, with the best version, the late, great Billy Fury). And back in the charts 35 years later thanks to its use on a Maynards Wine Gums advert. Impresario Jack Good had produced the very first modern music programme on television, the Six Five Special, which, according to my dad, was the reason for bunking off school early. As it was on the BBC, Auntie Beeb demanded an educational element with a news report, which Good deprecated; when the BBC refused to drop it, he resigned and took his show to ITV. And produced it as a pure music show called "Oh Boy!". Launching such stars as Cliff Richard, Fury, The Shadows and Marty Wilde. Given that Britain's musical stars before then (skiffle apart) could have been successful at any time since the 1920s, perhaps no music programme has ever been so influential. Good needed a house band to support the soloists, and approached bandleader Harry Robinson to put one together. Robinson basically spent a seaside weekend listening to American records to create the perfect band sound, and settled on two tenor saxes, two baritone saxes, the usual percussion, a whirling Wurlitzer, a piano and three guitars. He then needed to put them together; he trawled the sessionistas and members of other bands (like Ted Heath's) to create his stomping sound. Not all were into this new-fangled pop, Benny Green would wear dark glasses as a disguise from his jazz crowd, but at any rate their pop career was somewhat short. Debut single "Green Onions" missed the chart, and after their massive success only "Wee Tom" making the charts, debut single One of the problems was being able to tour, as the sessionistas were all in demand elsewhere. There was a second problem - the name. Jack Good claimed he had the rights to use the name Lord Rockingham, after all the whole thing was his idea; Robinson said it would be pointless to tour under a different name. And Robinson was probably aggrieved that the band received £6 each from their half-a-million seller... It ended up in court, as Robinson sued Good for the right to use the name; Robinson's back-up plan was to call his band "The Hootsmen". There were threats by some of the bandmembers to leave the XI and become a Hootsman (which would have been a problem for organist Cherry Wainer), but before it got too acrimonious they reached a settlement. Robinson could head the touring band, under the name of Lord Rockingham's XI, and Jack Good could have the rights to use the name for recording purposes. In the end, it was much ado about nothing, as the hits and tours fizzled away and the bandmembers went back to their usual routines...
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Post by Earl Purple on Mar 27, 2011 0:45:44 GMT 1
Nothing better on a Saturday night having returned from a whisky tasting event than listening to Hoots Mon!
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 31, 2011 22:48:35 GMT 1
John Cage v Mike BattThis is the oddest one here (and the second clip shows Edmonds has always been that funny - hence Half Man Half Biscuit's tribute to him). The man behind the Wombles' songs was Mike Batt, whose greatest singles success came with "Bright Eyes", taken to number one by Art Garfunkel. The theme tune from the animated version of "Watership Down"; you've read the book, you've seen the film, now try the stew. Nowadays he's more famous for being the power behind Katie Melua. John Cage was from a different musical tradition; that of musique concrète, or, to most people, a load of old sloblock. The embodiment of the Wilde quote that art is whatever one can get away with, Cage saw music in everything - traffic, random noises, collapsing new buildings, whatever - and used the background noise as part of his compositions. This reached its acme in "4'33"", which was entirely silent; the only music being that of whatever ambient noises were around. Which led to a little joke by Batt. On the album "Classical Graffiti" by crossover group The Planets, produced by Batt and on Batt's label, there was a minute's silence between the first and second half. Batt listed it as "A Minute's Silence", and cheekily listed it as composed by Cage and Batt. The album credits were sent off to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society to sort out the royalties for each track, and contacted the John Cage trust. So the trust sued. Not for plagiarism, as widely reported, but for misusing the name of John Cage. Batt, said the trust, was using Cage's notoriety for gain. Which you may think is as much sloblock as Cage's music. Nevertheless, the whole thing ended up in Court, where, on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice, the case settled; for the benefit of the media Batt handed over an envelope for what he said was "an undisclosed sum". He was right. He had written on the cheque "an undisclosed sum". The whole thing was good publicity for the album, probably less so for Cage's legacy, although I doubt anyone's opinion of the latter was swayed one way or another by it. Batt and the trust encouraged the media to think the cheque was for a six figure sum, and he was right; he sent a cheque a few days later to the trust's charity for six figures - two of them to the right of the decimal point. I was somewhat suspicious of the whole thing at the time, it looked like bought publicity as the claim was extremely tenuous and not the sort of thing that would succeed. And the cat is now out of the bag. It WAS bought publicity. Batt had registered the name "Clint Cage" with MIPS as a pseudonym and said he had written the track himself. A clear, if sneaky, defence to the particular claim being brought. However, Batt promised to make a donation to the trust if they strung things along a bit, so he could get extra publicity for The Planets... The trust did go along with it, on the basis that the issue would raise copyright awareness; at one point The Planets "played" "A Minute's Silence" in a public duel with a clarinettist playing "4'33"". And, as Batt pointed out, he had managed to say as much as Cage, but in 213 seconds less...
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 1, 2011 0:33:59 GMT 1
It's nice to know that even silence is copyrighted.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 1, 2011 7:24:30 GMT 1
It's not the silence, but the use of the Cage name in connexion with it. Frankly I think any claim would quickly have been thrown out, but it never got to a trial.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 5, 2011 21:51:22 GMT 1
Couple of name issues to finish off... ReefThey trademarked their name for the music categories; no problem. The problem came when it came to touring merchandise and t-shirts. Another company had trademarked the name Reef Brazil for clothing. The band said that this was not a problem – there was no confusion between the two, the trademarks were different and they could happily co-exist selling clothes to the clothesless. South Cone – the US company behind Reef Brazil – challenged the trademark. Reef Brazil was a brand of flip flops. Fitting, because Reef the band won, then South Cone appealed and won, and finally Reef the band appealed that and won. And there were no more appeals. That was the last court (you get two goes). The court eventually agreed that there was no real similarity between the trademarks, the word Brazil was just as prominent as Reef, and it was only used for sandals anyway. Plus Reef Brazil’s profile in Britain was not huge. There was no real evidence that customers would confuse Reef with Reef Brazil; Reef were therefore allowed to continue with their merchandising operations. They weren't the only act that hit copyright problems; however the others changed their name slightly. E.g.: Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy - the original Duran Duran vocalist and power behind The Lilac Time, before teaming up with a fat dancer; he simply dropped the Tin Tin bit after Herge's family complained The Red Crayola - psychedelic experimenters who continued in the seventies by changing the C to a K Bomb Disneyland - death metal band who became Bomb D-Land. Oddly, Irish outfit Microdisney avoided Uncle Walt's lawyers, perhaps because they remained obscure until they split into The High Llamas and The Fatima MansionsYou would think that it’s quite easy to avoid this sort of claim. And it is. It doesn’t take much googling to work out if someone else has your name. Sometimes though it’s almost wilful ignorance…
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Post by suedehead on Apr 6, 2011 0:01:31 GMT 1
Erm, googling might have been a bit tricky in the seventies
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 6, 2011 0:04:16 GMT 1
Great band, Reef. They would never merchandise anything so disgusting as the other name made to cause a clash. Hopefully the counterpart are out of business now.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 7, 2011 21:41:02 GMT 1
Erm, googling might have been a bit tricky in the seventies Yes, although one would not need google for finding out whether one had already used the name Disneyland. And there's no excuse for these people. Liberty v LibertyThis was a different matter, using a common-or-garden word for a group. The reality tv groups are so original they can’t even think of a distinctive name. The pop idol rejects being a case in point. They took the name Liberty, perhaps regarding their freedom from the oppressive shackles of the Cowells of this world, forcing them to dress in provocative clothing and fronting songs written and produced by someone else. Oh. The problem was there was already an act called Liberty. What’s more, they were still active. One of the things about trademarks is you use them or lose them; otherwise it would be a form of squatting, you could register every word in the dictionary for every category and then sue any new company that comes along. So names of acts that have not recorded for a long time and that everyone’s forgotten are fair game. Perhaps the executives at V2 had forgotten about the previous Liberty. Which shows really how ignorant of music they were. Because the previous Liberty had had some local success; they had won the 1993 Young London Band Of The Year contest, so should certainly have been on the radar of majors. Certainly they had released three singles, which sold a few thousand copies each, and appeared at Wembley Arena supporting Wet Wet Wet, but despite support from Capital FM did not gain any major breakthrough. So when the second Liberty came along and started having hits Liberty Mark 1 sued. Mark 1 argued that it still had some goodwill in the Liberty name; Mark 2 argued that Mark 1 was defunct (and de-funk-ed). The problem for Mark 2 was that Mark 1 had continued to record from 1995, albeit without gaining a release, and in March 2001 – just after the final of Pop Idol, and just as Mark 2 coalesced – had been touting a demo tape around. It basically came down to whether anyone had heard of Mark 1 and whether Mark 2’s presence would squash whatever reputation Mark 1 had. So did Mark 1 have a reputation worth protecting? The court decided it did – just about. The original Liberty still had a reputation in funk circles and its members were in demand as session musicians and singers; a number of DJs and producers gave evidence about Mark 1’s reputation. OK, it was only in a small subset of music fans, but it was enough. A borderline case, thought the judge, but he erred on the side of the originals. The case incidentally shows the importance of telling the truth; the judge was very impressed with the honesty of the members of the original group. Judges are human beings, believe it or not, and can be swayed by a good witness. He may also have been swayed by V2 quickly finding out about the original Liberty – before anything was released by the “Idles” – and had the opportunity to choose another name. But couldn't be bothered. Until they were forced to do so. In typical manufactured fashion, false Liberty couldn’t think of one themselves, so had a competition in the Sun. The winning name was X Liberty. They swapped the words around, so that the competition winner wouldn’t have any right in the trademark… Such naming shenanigans will lead onto the next irregular thread in this irregular series.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 15, 2011 20:10:30 GMT 1
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Post by suedehead on Jul 15, 2011 23:06:30 GMT 1
Wouldn't it make more sense if they were all trying to dissociate themselves from Bucks Fizz?
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 16, 2011 8:08:38 GMT 1
Trouble is, the names Orange Juice and Champaign have already been taken...
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