[pp.int.general] Protest certain musicians?

[Brian McNeil]

On Mon, 2009-10-26 at 22:16 -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
> For vinyl, and CDs, I have absolutely no problem with
>     whoever mass produces such items making a profit, and, when you break
>     out the tiny amount that actually goes to the creator,
> 
> If by "creator" you mean "musicians", the fact is that usually
> they get nothing.  They probably got nothing when he bought the first
> set of records, and nothing again when he bought the second set.
> This is because the usual record company contracts are exploitative.

I know. I'm a named copyright holder on a recording contract.

And, I can't get any royalties until I register with the appropriate
'industry body' supposed to represent copyright holders. There is no
choice who you register with, they're a monopoly. They 'graciously'
defer the £50 sign-up fee until you've accrued enough royalties to cover
it. Their main source of income is support from the biggest labels who
in no way, shape, or form represent me as a copyright holder.

The Belgian one, SABAM, is the only other I've seen in operation - doing
their little protection racket. A Thai friend living in Belgium opened
her own restaurant. A couple of menacing goons turned up two days later
and threatened to come back with orders to shut her restaurant if she
didn't sign the paperwork to automatically have them paid a fixed
quarterly amount.

All the music she was playing was Thai. Released on Thai record labels,
recorded by Thai artists. Wherever the money she was paying went, I'd be
absolutely astounded if it went anywhere near Thailand. Unless it was in
the pocket of a record company executive while he sunned himself on a
Phuket beach.

It is, quite frankly, institutionalised racketeering.

-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects.
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