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Updated band rant

T

tlwaps

Feb 13, 2006
466
2
Ohio
#1
I'm sure quite a few of you remember my last thread talking about my old band and the one guitarist from that band, well he still hasn't gave me guitar back and nobody can find him. Anyway, last night I got a call from my singer saying that a band signed to an indie lable just released a new album with our old drummer in the band and roughly 85% of the music on the entire album is our old bands, and 3 other bands from the area; the other 15% is a cover song and a couple of their own songs. Nobody had our permission to use the music, we have 3 songs on cd and every single song we had written is on video of us performing it live. I've been trying to find an attorney in the area that deals with entertainment issues but i'm unable to find one. Just out of curiosity, do you guys/gals think we have a good shot at winning a lawsuit should we persue that route? Or should we just gang up and kick his a$$?
 
#7
Well, if you have a copy of the tune or lyrics on a computer, then the file is dated. If this date precedes their recording, then you have an infringement case.
Rather than stop them from using it (cease and desist- but if you want to do this a lawyer can write a C&D letter for you), you should send a notice of ownership to the band and the label, and make an offer to, instead of a lawsuit or C&D, give you credit and royalties (if any ever happen). Also credit for any playing you did. And the CD artwork gets changed to reflect this on the next pressing run. This basically gets you the credits and doesn't cost them any money to speak of, and hopefully, there will be no further animosity.
 
#8
Nick Kay said:
If you don't have your songs copyrighted, you've got nothing to go on. Sorry, mate.
Click to expand...

If you wrote down the songs, they were copyrighted the minute you did so.

Just as this post is... and anything else you write.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#mywork

"When is my work protected?

Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device."
 
#11
lamonica78 said:
+1, unless you can produce original copyrights, you have no case whatsoever. A singer that my old band auditioned ripped off one of our tunes, but since we did not have any copyright on it there was nothing we could do at the time (the song was garbage anyway, haha)
Click to expand...

Sorry, but that's wrong. An original composition has a copyright the minute it is recorded. "Recorded" btw is not limited to an audio recording, but can be recorded on paper as well. If you've got audio, video or written charts you've got a copyright that's likely enforceable.

If they have "released" these songs and you can indeed prove you are the author or co-author (and it sounds like you can), and you did not expressly give them permission to release the recordings as a first release(composers always have the right of first release), then they have a problem and you've got a case and can seek compensation. However, if you did previously release the CDs with the original recordings on them (i.e. made copies and distributed them to the public), then they have the right to release their own recordings of those tunes any time they wish, HOWEVER they must credit the author(s) properly AND pay you a statutory rate for a mechanical license on each and every unit they sell. At the very least, assuming the drummer was a co-author of the compositions, he owes you both the credit and your share of the publishing, which needs to be paid to the authors by the record company.

However, unless these tunes sell big numbers, you're very likely to spend more money trying to recover what you're owed on attorney's fees.

There's a great book by Scott Passman called "Everything You Wanted To Know About The Music Business". It's a must-read for anyone who wants to know what they already think they know about songwriting, royalties and record companies and are most likely completely wrong about.
 
#12
aborgman said:
If you wrote down the songs, they were copyrighted the minute you did so.

Just as this post is... and anything else you write.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#mywork

"When is my work protected?

Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device."
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that this other band has already registered the CD they recorded with the copyright office - it's the first thing I do when I record something. OP will need tangible, dated proof that he wrote the songs in question if he wants his case to hold up. Of course, the drummer probably doesn't know if the OP has said proof or not, so he could get a lawyer to drop a C&D on them and they'd get scared and pull the CD.
 
#15
Craig Garfinkel said:
Sorry, but that's wrong. An original composition has a copyright the minute it is recorded. "Recorded" btw is not limited to an audio recording, but can be recorded on paper as well. If you've got audio, video or written charts you've got a copyright that's likely enforceable.
Click to expand...

+1

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Go to the section marked Who can claim copyright? Copyright is granted to the owner the moment a work is created. People file for copyrights with the copyright office because it gives the owner a way to provide irrefutable proof of copyright ownership in the event of a case of infringement.

Although you don't have a government copyright, you still have a copyright to the songs. You just need a way to prove you and your band wrote and created the songs before they released them.
 
#16
One thought (and of course I am not a copyright lawyer) is that an "indie label" is anybody with a computer. A lot depends on how substantial the label actually is. Their release may be irrelevant, and your best course of action might be simply to continue using your own songs yourself as you see fit. If anybody asks, just tell them that you own the material. You could put the live video clips on YouTube.

In terms of suing someone, they could always turn around and say: "We all composed those tunes together," or else, "we wrote those tunes first, but did not keep the original files." At that point your implicit copyright is probably worth the paper it is written on.

The time and aggravation that you continue to spend on the band that blew up, you could spend writing 3 more tunes that are even better.
 
#18
The band is signed to Victory Records and from what I've heard they've been dropped from Victory as well. Don't know if it's true or not that they've been dropped, but thanks everyone for the advice. I asked one of my professors (i'm a paralegal major trying to get into law school) if she knew of any attorney's that I could talk to that had experience with this kind of stuff and she didn't.
 
#19
Craig Garfinkel said:
Sorry, but that's wrong. An original composition has a copyright the minute it is recorded. "Recorded" btw is not limited to an audio recording, but can be recorded on paper as well. If you've got audio, video or written charts you've got a copyright that's likely enforceable.

If they have "released" these songs and you can indeed prove you are the author or co-author (and it sounds like you can), and you did not expressly give them permission to release the recordings as a first release(composers always have the right of first release), then they have a problem and you've got a case and can seek compensation. However, if you did previously release the CDs with the original recordings on them (i.e. made copies and distributed them to the public), then they have the right to release their own recordings of those tunes any time they wish, HOWEVER they must credit the author(s) properly AND pay you a statutory rate for a mechanical license on each and every unit they sell. At the very least, assuming the drummer was a co-author of the compositions, he owes you both the credit and your share of the publishing, which needs to be paid to the authors by the record company.

However, unless these tunes sell big numbers, you're very likely to spend more money trying to recover what you're owed on attorney's fees.

There's a great book by Scott Passman called "Everything You Wanted To Know About The Music Business". It's a must-read for anyone who wants to know what they already think they know about songwriting, royalties and record companies and are most likely completely wrong about.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected....and I have a book that I now need to get!!!
 
#20
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