AUGUST & JULY 2005
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MUSIC - Hip-hop star wages master battle: Kanye West suing Chicago deejay over 10 unreleased tunes
by Rudolph Bush, Chicago Tribune August 30, 2005 -- A battle over 10 unreleased tunes by hip-hop superstar Kanye West escalated into a federal lawsuit Monday complete with accusations of a forged signature and a fake contract. In the 20-page suit, West contends that Chicago deejay Eric `E-Smoove' Miller possesses master recordings of tracks the 28-year-old Grammy winner created prior to his 18th birthday. Miller, who owns Focus Music Group in Richton Park, began his career as a deejay in the early 1980s and is known as a force in the creation of "house music." Miller and West worked together creating songs before West achieved fame, according to the suit. Among those songs are several master recordings that West says Miller improperly tried to distribute this year. They include such tracks as "Stop Frontin'" and "Ho!!!," that West's attorneys say Miller offered to distributors using a fake contract with West's forged signature. In February, Miller "represented to Galt Entertainment that [he] had a contract with West to exploit the unauthorized masters and presented Galt Entertainment with a document entitled `Focus Music Group --Artist Recording Agreement' which they represented was signed by West and Miller on May 19, 1995," the suit states."In fact, this document was a complete and utter fraud," according to the suit. Calls to Miller and an attorney listed in the suit as representing him were not returned Monday afternoon. According to the suit, Miller tried to reach a North American distribution agreement with Galt for $450,000, but the Nashville company was suspicious of the 1995 contract and sought out West's attorneys for guidance. At that point, Miller tried to cover his tracks, sending out an e-mail to West's representatives calling the contract a "dummy" he was using to get a foot in the door with distributors, the suit charges. West's attorneys quote from a letter that they say Miller sent after learning the allegedly forged contract had been discovered. "It was never supposed to leave the broker's hands but one of the distributors must have gotten anxious while we were researching the numbers," Miller wrote, according to West's attorneys. When he couldn't get a response from West's representatives, Miller went to the source closest to West, his mother Donda, the suit says."Donda informed Miller ... West would not consent" to the release of the tracks, the suit states. West's attorneys insisted that the public dispute is particularly damaging now, as West releases his latest album "Late Registration. "In addition to payment of no less than $1.3 million, West has demanded that Miller cease from ever using his name or voice in connection with the sale or "exploitation" of the master recordings.
MUSIC - Vengeful Sharon Osbourne shortchanges Ozzfest fans (class-action suits) by Mark Brown August 27, 2005 Rocky Mountain News -- On paper, it sounds like a great rock rivalry. Iron Maiden toured on Ozzfest, with frontman Bruce Dickenson taking swipes at Ozzy Osbourne from the stage on an almost nightly basis. So Sharon Osbourne - the savviest woman in music and well-deserving her Cruella DeVille image - decided to get revenge. Last week on the last night Maiden was on the tour - and the biggest stop, a 40,000-plus hotter-than-hell, middle-of-nowhere venue at the desert edge of the Los Angeles basin - she got it. In an Osbourne-orchestrated ambush, Iron Maiden was pelted with eggs, so much so that drummer Nicko McBrain had to stop and wipe off his kit to keep playing. Pre-recorded chants of "OZZY! OZZY!" were played through the sound system. When Maiden did play a number, the sound system would suddenly shut off in the middle. Finally, after the band left the stage, Osbourne came out and sent some obscenities their way. She later tried to cover her atrocious, unprofessional behavior by issuing a statement that not only had Dickenson dissed Ozzy, but "it also offended me every night how he took out the English flag in America," saying that it disrespected American troops. I guess we better hope The Who never tours again. At first, it's easy to chuckle from afar. But the arrogance of Osbourne is sickening. Many of those fans paid $150 a ticket to see a full show and they got cheated. It's that rock-star mentality that isn't limited just to rock - people in all stripes of the entertainment industry still don't seem to realize that the word "fan" really equals "customer." And that customers walk away when the service is bad, whether that bad service takes the form of a ruined rock show, commercials before the movie, a child-molestation trial or using Oprah's couch as a trampoline. The rock world, however, seems particularly unable to grasp the concept of "the show must go on." A glitch happens, and Ashlee Simpson squirms off the stage on live TV. There are Axl Rose's canceled shows, both back in the day with the real Guns N' Roses and in modern times with the new ringers he hired under that name. There are Ryan Adams' ongoing breakdowns onstage, many of them now circulating on the Internet as sort of gruesome aural train wrecks. And, as always, there's no recourse for the fans who are cheated. Creed is held up as one of the most egregious examples. At a Dec. 29, 2002, concert in Chicago, fans went to the show expecting to see the band's biggest hits. Instead, they got a short show where singer Scott Stapp wasn't able to make his way through a single Creed number. Stapp "was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable of tossing the lyrics of a single Creed song," fans later complained in a class-action lawsuit filed against the band to get their ticket money back. "Stapp left the stage on several occasions during songs for long periods of time, rolled around on the floor of the stage in apparent pain or distress and appeared to pass out while on stage during the performance." Given that they'd just completed a successful U.S. tour, you'd think the supposedly Christian band would be willing to make it good to the fans - give a refund to those who wanted it, or redo the concert for ticket holders. In an amazing display of arrogance, however, the band merely issued a statement saying that fans should be happy that they "definitely experienced the most unique of all Creed shows and may have become a part of the unusual world of rock 'n' roll history!" The lawsuit was dismissed. In 2003, fans - again in Chicago - went to a Limp Bizkit show only to have singer Fred Durst stalk offstage after only 17 minutes of what was supposed to be a full set. At least those fans got six songs, and in Durst's defense, he was being pelted by bottles and garbage after the crowd turned on him, according to news reports. I've said it before: I think there's a class-action suit available every time an artist's CDs are reissued in improved sound. Not surround-sound mixes or expanded editions, but just the straight remastering of previously released albums that have been done by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young and countless others. Fans already have paid full price for these discs with the expectation that they were getting CD-quality, top-notch, taken-from-the-masters sound. Often, however, CDs were pressed off of inferior tapes. Then the record companies have the gall to say "Wait a minute - here's the real deal. You're welcome to buy it again." Then again, a lot of fans have a bad response when a performer tries his best to show them a good time. On the Ghost of Tom Joad tour in '95 and '96, Bruce Springsteen told fans from the stage to be quiet. This current solo acoustic tour finds him not only doing that, but passing out flyers before the show asking for quiet and explaining that drink sales also would end at showtime to keep the foot traffic down. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of fans appreciated hearing his songs unmarred, but I got a large number of complaints from people who resented "being told what to do at a concert" (though I suspect the beer cutoff was the biggest sticking point). As the movie and music industries are learning, fans won't pay good money for bad product and abuse. Word is that this is the last Ozzfest tour. If it's not, fans should make sure that it is anyway.
MUSIC - Synthesizer Innovator Robert A. Moog Dies - 08.22.2005, Associated Press -- He may not have been a rock star himself, but Robert A. Moog's influence can be heard in the music of bands from The Beatles to Yes, Herbie Hancock to Chick Corea. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and helped revolutionize rock, died Sunday of a brain tumor at his home in Asheville, according to his company's Web site. He was 71. "He brought electronic music to the masses and changed the way we hear music," said Charles Carlini, a New York City concert promoter. "He's like an Einstein of music." Moog's synthesizer allowed musicians to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial or sliding a knob. His instrument stood out from others on the market because it was small, light and versatile. "I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," Moog said in 2000. "They use my tools." The Beatles used a Moog synthesizer on their 1969 album "Abbey Road"; a Moog was used to create an eerie sound on the soundtrack to the 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange." A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to create a business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars. As a Ph.D. student in engineering physics at Cornell University, Moog developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules with composer Herb Deutsch. By the end of the year, R.A. Moog Co. marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer. "Suddenly, there was a whole group of people in the world looking for a new sound in music, and it picked up very quickly," said Deutsch, a Hofstra University emeritus music professor. "The Moog came at the right time." As extended keyboard solos in rock and funk - and later hip-hop and techno - took off, Moog's instrument was used in songs by Manfred Mann, Yes and Pink Floyd. "The sound defined progressive music as we know it," said Keith Emerson, keyboardist for the rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Keyboardist Walter (later Wendy) Carlos demonstrated the range of Moog's synthesizer by recording the hit album "Switched-On Bach" in 1968 using only the new instrument instead of an orchestra. "Every time you listen to the radio, you listen to Robert Moog's influence," said Carlini, who staged Moogfest in May 2004 to mark a half-century since Moog founded his first company. But the synthesizer's ability to mimic strings, horns and percussion has also threatened some musicians. In 2004, musicians extracted a promise from the Opera Company of Brooklyn to never use an advanced kind of synthesizer, called a virtual orchestra machine, in future productions. Moog spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville before turning full-time to running his new instrument business, which was renamed Moog Music in 2002. The roster of customers includes Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Beck, Phish, Sonic Youth and Widespread Panic. Moog is survived by his wife, Ileana; two daughters, a son, a stepdaughter, and his former wife, Shirleigh Moog. A public memorial is scheduled for Wednesday in Asheville.
MUSIC - Music Industry Worried About CD Burning - MBN 08.17.2005 -- Music copied onto blank recordable CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the bottom line of record stores and music labels than online file-sharing, the head of the recording industry's trade group said Friday. A report by AP says "Burned" CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing networks, said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America.The data, compiled by the market research firm NPD Group, suggested that about half of all recordings obtained by music fans in 2004 were due to authorized CD sales and about 4 percent from paid music downloads."CD burning is a problem that is really undermining sales," Bainwol said in an interview prior to speaking before about 750 members of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in San Diego Friday.Copy protection technology "is an answer to the problem that clearly the marketplace is going to see more of," he added.Album sales in the North America are down about 7 percent this year compared with a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan.Yet the recording industry has seen a lift from online music sales, which when factored in with album and sales of CD singles increased overall music sales through July to 21 percent over last year.The focus on CD burning Friday was welcomed by Alayna Hill-Alderman, who said she has seen music CD sales slide in recent years while sales of blank recordable CDs have soared."We are feeling the decline in our store sales, especially with regard to R&B and the hip-hop world," said Hill-Alderman, co-owner of Record Archive, a two-store company operating in Rochester, N.Y. "It's all due to burning. We've lost tremendous amounts of those sales to flea markets and bodegas."After experimenting with copy-protected CDs in Europe and Latin America in recent years, some record labels have begun releasing albums in North America with similar copy restrictions. The CDs typically allow users to burn no more than a handful of copies.Velvet Revolver's "Contraband," released last year, was equipped with such copy-protection technology and grabbed the top sales spot in its debut week.Some saw that as a sign music fans didn't mind CDs with copy restrictions. But other releases since, such as the latest Foo Fighters album, have sometimes spawned fan complaints that the restrictions go too far or create technology conflicts with portable audio devices.Simon Wright, chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group International, which oversees the Virgin chain of music stores, said he's in favor of labels releasing more albums in a copy-protected CD format, regardless of the potential for consumer backlash."If, particularly, the technology allows two-to-three burns, that's well within acceptable limits and I don't think why consumers should have any complaints," Wright said.
MUSIC - Falcon Beach looking for great songs
August 16, 2005 WINNIPEG -- Calling all indie bands! The producers of Global's upcoming Falcon Beach are looking for songs to be featured in the debut season of the one-hour drama series. Original Pictures and Insight Productions have put out a call for bands from coast to coast to submit their songs for consideration. Last January, Falcon Beach premiered on Global as a two-hour pilot that featured 16 songs from indie bands like Pilate, Doctor, Paper Moon and Matt Mays & El Torpedo, as well as songs from established major label artists like Sam Roberts, Holly McNarland and Sloan. Currently in production for a 13-part series, the Falcon Beach producers are planning to once again include some of the incredible musical talent that comes out of Canada in each episode of the series. "This is a unique opportunity for us to showcase homegrown Canadian talent and offer aspiring bands a chance to have their music heard internationally," said executive producers John Brunton and Kim Todd. In addition to being aired nationally on Global Television this winter, the series will air on the Disney-owned U.S. broadcaster ABC Family, which is available in 87 million homes across the U.S., during the summer of 2006. To be eligible for consideration, bands must have a professionally mastered recording available on CD. All entries must be submitted by Sept. 15, and include, a CD, bio, contact information and signed submission release. Submission releases are available for download on the Falcon Beach official website at www.falconbeach.ca Aspiring bands can send their submissions to: Sarah WebsterS.L. Feldman & Associates Ltd.Suite 200, 1505 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3Y4. email: webster@slfa.com Only bands whose songs have been chosen will be contacted. Submissions will not be returned.
MUSIC - Canadian Singer Leonard Cohen's fortune wiped out by Scott Stinson, National Post, Tuesday, August 16, 2005 -- Leonard Cohen is almost broke and embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with former close associates that runs contrary to his Zen Buddhist beliefs. Mr. Cohen's financial and legal woes are detailed in a Maclean's magazine report that describes how the poet, singer and songwriter discovered in October that his retirement savings had been whittled from an estimated US$5-million to about US$150,000. "I was devastated," the Maclean's story quotes Mr. Cohen as saying when he learned of his lost fortune, which has required him to mortgage a house to pay legal bills. Mr. Cohen, 70, has only been aware of his money problems for less than a year, but it seems they coincide with a 2001 decision to put the proceeds from an US$8-million sale of his copyright and royalty rights into a company called Traditional Holdings LLC. Maclean's says the new company was 99.5% owned by Kelley Lynch, Mr. Cohen's personal manager since 1988. Mr. Cohen held 0.5% of the company. The magazine story says the unusual arrangement was decided upon for tax reasons, but that Mr. Cohen trusted absolutely the motives of Ms. Lynch and the guidance of his long-time financial advisor, Neal Greenberg. Over the next few years, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado in June, Ms. Lynch borrowed repeatedly from Traditional Holdings coffers, sometimes taking out tens of thousands of dollars at a time. While Mr. Cohen fired Ms. Lynch upon learning of his depleted bank balance in October, he told Maclean's that Mr. Greenberg is also to blame for allowing the repeated withdrawals to continue without warning the singer-songwriter directly about his problems. Mr. Greenberg, whose money-management firm Agile Group is based in Denver, has insisted Mr. Cohen was aware of his financial dealings. He said he launched the June lawsuit against Mr. Cohen -- Ms. Lynch is also named -- because the singer-songwriter and his lawyer, Robert Kory, were trying to extort money from him. The lawsuit says Mr. Cohen and his lawyer threatened to go public with allegations of his financial mismanagement in attempt to ruin his business. "Agile states that Cohen and Kory falsely claim that Agile bears responsibility for the alleged misappropriation of Cohen's invested funds by Cohen's former manager," the lawsuit says. "The complaint also states that Cohen and Kory attempted to [and in some instances did] recruit third parties in their conspiracy and procure false testimony." Mr. Greenberg's lawsuit also says Mr. Cohen spent much of his missing millions in order to support his "extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle," although repeated newspaper profiles have described Mr. Cohen as someone who avoids the trappings of celebrity and maintains modest homes in Montreal and Los Angeles. Mr. Kory released a statement in June that said Mr. Greenberg's claim was "completely consistent with Agile's reckless disregard for its client and his investments." "We had hoped to reach an out-of-court settlement with Agile that returned to Mr. Cohen some portion of the retirement money the firm was authorized to administer on his behalf. Instead, in the middle of negotiations to determine Agile's responsibilities to Mr. Cohen to compensate him for money lost under their management, Agile launched a surprise attack in an effort to besmirch the reputation of one of its notable clients," the statement said, adding that a countersuit would be forthcoming. None of the allegations in Mr. Greenberg's lawsuit has been proven in court. Ms. Lynch told Maclean's she had done nothing wrong and said she would sue Mr. Cohen and others involved in the case. The magazine quotes Mr. Cohen as saying he only decided to sue upon realizing he would have to pay taxes on millions of dollars he no longer had. "I don't want anybody hurt," he says. "It's not my nature to pursue and contend with people that way."
MUSIC - Russia no longer on top of global piracy watchdog's blacklist
15/ 08/ 2005 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti, Alexei Peslyak) - Music and film piracy may be still a problem in Russia, but the country is no longer on top of the global piracy watchdog's blacklist, a senior copyright official in Russia said Monday. Alexander Romanenkov, the deputy head of Russia's Federal Office for Media Law Enforcement and Cultural Heritage Protection, acknowledged that copyright holders in the West often accused Russia of unauthorized copying of recorded music and film, and of a failure to pay royalties on copyrighted content. But he said that thanks to effective efforts by domestic law-enforcement agencies, Russia's share in global music piracy had now been cut to 7.3%, so the nation was no longer among the world top ten copyright violators on the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) blacklist. Romanenkov also said that a U.S.-Russian working group for intellectual property protection and a Russian government commission set up for the purpose in December 2002 were dealing with copyright-related concerns in intergovernmental relations.
BOOKS - Judge Rules for 'Da Vinci' Author
BOOKS - Chinese pirates work magic on 'Potter' by Associated Press Sunday, July 31, 2005 BEIJING -- It's missing some paragraphs and gets a couple of facts wrong, but the wizards of China's thriving piracy industry have worked their magic again and produced a rush translation of the latest Harry Potter book. An unauthorized Chinese version of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was on sale Sunday in Beijing, just two weeks after the book appeared in English and almost three months ahead of the planned October launch of the official Chinese-language edition. Impatient Chinese fans also have begun posting their own translations online. One reader was so upset about the ending he wrote his own and posted it on a university Web site. The fantasy series by J.K. Rowling is wildly popular in China, where the hero is known as "Ha-li Bo-te" and authorized translations of five earlier books have sold millions of copies. In 2002, an unknown Chinese author produced an entire fake adventure, "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon." Chinese leaders, under pressure from the United States and the country's other trading partners, have promised repeatedly to stamp out the country's rampant piracy of goods ranging from books and movies to drugs and designer clothes. But such fakes are still widely available, and foreign companies say they are losing billions of dollars in potential sales. A Chinese-character softcover version of the newest Harry Potter installment was being sold off a tarp in an underpass in downtown Beijing for 20 yuan, or $2.50, while the official English-language hardcover books sell in Beijing for the equivalent of $21. The saleswoman would not say where she got the book but said she had been selling copies since Friday. The fake book looked identical to the first five tales put out by People's Literature Publishing House, the mainland firm that purchased the rights to publish Harry Potter in Chinese. However, several crucial pages of action are missing and there are some critical mistranslations, such as using the word "immortal" at one point when the original says "mortal." The earlier authorized translations were produced by a team of veteran children's book translators. Pirated versions of those books and the movie spin-offs are widely available in China. The People's Literature Publishing House plans to launch the official Chinese version of the new book Oct. 15, the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported Sunday. In 2003, the publisher tried to beat pirates to market by rushing out its own translation of Rowling's previous book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," 10 days before its scheduled release. At that time, the company offered a reward for reporting piracy, but it was not clear whether it caught any copycats. A spokesman for Rowling's London agent, Christopher Little, said two weeks ago the agent had successfully taken action against Chinese pirates but declined to give details. China is regarded as the world's biggest source of illegally copied goods ranging from Hollywood movies and Microsoft Corp. software to Ralph Lauren designer shirts and Callaway golf clubs. stimates of potential lost sales to legitimate producers worldwide range from $16 billion to as much as $50 billion a year. China's own producers of music, software and other goods say they also suffer huge losses. In response to complaints from it trading partners that fines were too light to deter pirates, China has begun imposing jail time for violations. The government said in June that during an eight-month crackdown it had arrested some 2,600 people and destroyed 63 million compact discs and other counterfeit goods estimated to be worth $105 million. Earlier this month, Chinese officials promised to further step up anti-piracy efforts during a visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. They said they would file more criminal charges in copyright cases, crack down on Chinese exports of pirated products and focus special attention on movie piracy. evertheless, counterfeit goods are still widely available in Chinese shops. It is estimated that 70 percent of pirated products coming into the United States originate in China. Since the English-language release of the latest Harry Potter book, Chinese fans have begun sharing their own translations for free on Web sites, including those run by Beijing's elite Tsinghua and Peking universities. On the Tsinghua site, a fan writing under the name Woodchuckle was so upset by Rowling's ending that he wrote and posted his own. A notice posted on the Tsinghua site from its administrator told users that several postings were deleted because they contained illegal electronic versions of the book. The notice said the university had received a warning from a law firm but did not give any other details. Fans also use the chat rooms to talk about their reactions to the new plot twists, opinions on the characters or what they felt they learned from the story. "As soon as I saw the book in the bookstore, I bought it and rushed home to read it," wrote one fan writing on the Tsinghua site. "I didn't finish it until the middle of the night and then I cried like crazy." Chinese and English paperback copies of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' bought from the streets cost RMB20 (US$2.40) and RMB30 ($3.60) respectively in Beijing. The official Chinese version of the popular book is expected only in October this year. Harry's reach is global -- but only English (book translations)by Hillel Italie Associated Press 27 July 2005, NEW YORK -- Check out the front window of Manhattan's Libreria Lectorum, one of the largest Spanish-language bookstores in the United States, and you'll see a witch's hat and a handful of copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- in English. While millions have already finished the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, fans hoping to read it in other languages will have to wait. Translating a 672-page book is a long process, made longer by the strict security imposed on Half-Blood Prince by Rowling and her publishers. Translators didn't get to see the book until it officially came out on July 16. "The Spanish publisher (Salamandra Editorial, based in Barcelona) is just getting started and told us that the translation will probably be ready in the spring of 2006," says Marjorie Samper, product manager of Lectorum Publications, a Spanish-language book distributor that oversees the Lectorum store and is in turn owned by Scholastic Inc., Rowling's U.S. publisher. The Potter books are enormously popular throughout the world and have been translated into dozens of languages, with German and Japanese editions doing especially well. But Neil Blair, a representative from Rowling's literary agency, said that the first translations of any kind for Half-Blood Prince -- German and Mandarin so far -- aren't expected until the fall. Lectorum officials say customers are frequently calling and visiting the store with requests for the Spanish version of Half-Blood Prince. Samper said she expects a comparable level of interest to the previous Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had a first printing of more than 50,000, a number as high as for such popular Spanish-language authors as Isabel Allende and Jorge Ramos. "A lot of customers are asking about it. I have a waiting list of 80-90 people," says Miguel Salvat, marketing director for the Miami-based Libreria Universal. "Obviously, people would be happier if we had the book, but they don't get upset. They understand there's nothing we can do about it." With the Hispanic population topping 35 million in the United States, the book industry is well aware of the Spanish-language market, by far the biggest non-English market in the country. Random House Inc., Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster are among the publishers with Spanish-language imprints; the superstore chains Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group have expanded their Spanish offerings. "We've consistently seen double-digit growth for the last number of years," says Randi Sonenshein, Border's category manager for books in Spanish. She said demand was high both for books originally published in Spanish, such as the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and for books in translation, such as Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's works. But getting translations into stores is often frustrating -- sometimes hurried, sometimes slow. A number of factors can interfere: delays in getting the manuscript to translators; the intricacies of translation, especially for literary fiction; and a reluctance even to commit to a Spanish edition until the English work has proved successful. "With Harry Potter, you don't have to decide whether the book will succeed in Spanish, but for some books, you wonder how big the market will be," says Milena Alberti, director of Spanish-language publishing at Vintage Espanol, a Random House imprint. "We just acquired (Carlos Eire's) Waiting for Snow in Havana and we'll publish it in the fall. It won a National Book Award (in 2003) and was kind of a surprise success. That's something we couldn't have known before the book came out." Hot editor Karp gets Warner imprintHillel Italie, Associated Press Thursday, July 21, 2005 NEW YORK -- Jonathan Karp, the editor of Seabiscuit, The Orchid Thief and many other bestsellers at Random House Inc., will run his own imprint at Warner Books. Karp, who left Random House in June, has been named publisher and editor-in-chief of Warner Twelve, which will release 12 books a year. "The idea of being both the publisher and editor of the books I work on is something I've aspired to my entire career," Karp said Thursday. "And I love the idea of only publishing 12 books a year. It's so hard to get people to pay attention to books and the best things a publisher can do is lavish its own attention." The first Warner Twelve book is expected to come out in spring 2007. The 41-year-old Karp was in his mid-20s when he joined Random House as an editorial assistant and soon displayed a knack for spotting bestsellers, especially narrative non-fiction. His many authors included Laura Hillenbrand, best known for Seabiscuit; Susan Orlean, who wrote The Orchid Thief; Senator John McCain; Donald Trump; and Po Bronson. Karp seemed to enjoy publicizing books as much as acquiring them, and once helped organize a U.S.-wide contest to find an author to write a sequel to the late Mario Puzo's Godfather novels. Mark Winegardner's The Godfather Returns was a bestseller last year. Karp believes that Warner, publisher of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Jon Stewart's America (The Book), shares his aggressive approach. "
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MUSIC - Hip-hop star wages master battle: Kanye West suing Chicago deejay over 10 unreleased tunes
by Rudolph Bush, Chicago Tribune August 30, 2005 -- A battle over 10 unreleased tunes by hip-hop superstar Kanye West escalated into a federal lawsuit Monday complete with accusations of a forged signature and a fake contract. In the 20-page suit, West contends that Chicago deejay Eric `E-Smoove' Miller possesses master recordings of tracks the 28-year-old Grammy winner created prior to his 18th birthday. Miller, who owns Focus Music Group in Richton Park, began his career as a deejay in the early 1980s and is known as a force in the creation of "house music." Miller and West worked together creating songs before West achieved fame, according to the suit. Among those songs are several master recordings that West says Miller improperly tried to distribute this year. They include such tracks as "Stop Frontin'" and "Ho!!!," that West's attorneys say Miller offered to distributors using a fake contract with West's forged signature. In February, Miller "represented to Galt Entertainment that [he] had a contract with West to exploit the unauthorized masters and presented Galt Entertainment with a document entitled `Focus Music Group --Artist Recording Agreement' which they represented was signed by West and Miller on May 19, 1995," the suit states."In fact, this document was a complete and utter fraud," according to the suit. Calls to Miller and an attorney listed in the suit as representing him were not returned Monday afternoon. According to the suit, Miller tried to reach a North American distribution agreement with Galt for $450,000, but the Nashville company was suspicious of the 1995 contract and sought out West's attorneys for guidance. At that point, Miller tried to cover his tracks, sending out an e-mail to West's representatives calling the contract a "dummy" he was using to get a foot in the door with distributors, the suit charges. West's attorneys quote from a letter that they say Miller sent after learning the allegedly forged contract had been discovered. "It was never supposed to leave the broker's hands but one of the distributors must have gotten anxious while we were researching the numbers," Miller wrote, according to West's attorneys. When he couldn't get a response from West's representatives, Miller went to the source closest to West, his mother Donda, the suit says."Donda informed Miller ... West would not consent" to the release of the tracks, the suit states. West's attorneys insisted that the public dispute is particularly damaging now, as West releases his latest album "Late Registration. "In addition to payment of no less than $1.3 million, West has demanded that Miller cease from ever using his name or voice in connection with the sale or "exploitation" of the master recordings.
MUSIC - Vengeful Sharon Osbourne shortchanges Ozzfest fans (class-action suits) by Mark Brown August 27, 2005 Rocky Mountain News -- On paper, it sounds like a great rock rivalry. Iron Maiden toured on Ozzfest, with frontman Bruce Dickenson taking swipes at Ozzy Osbourne from the stage on an almost nightly basis. So Sharon Osbourne - the savviest woman in music and well-deserving her Cruella DeVille image - decided to get revenge. Last week on the last night Maiden was on the tour - and the biggest stop, a 40,000-plus hotter-than-hell, middle-of-nowhere venue at the desert edge of the Los Angeles basin - she got it. In an Osbourne-orchestrated ambush, Iron Maiden was pelted with eggs, so much so that drummer Nicko McBrain had to stop and wipe off his kit to keep playing. Pre-recorded chants of "OZZY! OZZY!" were played through the sound system. When Maiden did play a number, the sound system would suddenly shut off in the middle. Finally, after the band left the stage, Osbourne came out and sent some obscenities their way. She later tried to cover her atrocious, unprofessional behavior by issuing a statement that not only had Dickenson dissed Ozzy, but "it also offended me every night how he took out the English flag in America," saying that it disrespected American troops. I guess we better hope The Who never tours again. At first, it's easy to chuckle from afar. But the arrogance of Osbourne is sickening. Many of those fans paid $150 a ticket to see a full show and they got cheated. It's that rock-star mentality that isn't limited just to rock - people in all stripes of the entertainment industry still don't seem to realize that the word "fan" really equals "customer." And that customers walk away when the service is bad, whether that bad service takes the form of a ruined rock show, commercials before the movie, a child-molestation trial or using Oprah's couch as a trampoline. The rock world, however, seems particularly unable to grasp the concept of "the show must go on." A glitch happens, and Ashlee Simpson squirms off the stage on live TV. There are Axl Rose's canceled shows, both back in the day with the real Guns N' Roses and in modern times with the new ringers he hired under that name. There are Ryan Adams' ongoing breakdowns onstage, many of them now circulating on the Internet as sort of gruesome aural train wrecks. And, as always, there's no recourse for the fans who are cheated. Creed is held up as one of the most egregious examples. At a Dec. 29, 2002, concert in Chicago, fans went to the show expecting to see the band's biggest hits. Instead, they got a short show where singer Scott Stapp wasn't able to make his way through a single Creed number. Stapp "was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable of tossing the lyrics of a single Creed song," fans later complained in a class-action lawsuit filed against the band to get their ticket money back. "Stapp left the stage on several occasions during songs for long periods of time, rolled around on the floor of the stage in apparent pain or distress and appeared to pass out while on stage during the performance." Given that they'd just completed a successful U.S. tour, you'd think the supposedly Christian band would be willing to make it good to the fans - give a refund to those who wanted it, or redo the concert for ticket holders. In an amazing display of arrogance, however, the band merely issued a statement saying that fans should be happy that they "definitely experienced the most unique of all Creed shows and may have become a part of the unusual world of rock 'n' roll history!" The lawsuit was dismissed. In 2003, fans - again in Chicago - went to a Limp Bizkit show only to have singer Fred Durst stalk offstage after only 17 minutes of what was supposed to be a full set. At least those fans got six songs, and in Durst's defense, he was being pelted by bottles and garbage after the crowd turned on him, according to news reports. I've said it before: I think there's a class-action suit available every time an artist's CDs are reissued in improved sound. Not surround-sound mixes or expanded editions, but just the straight remastering of previously released albums that have been done by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young and countless others. Fans already have paid full price for these discs with the expectation that they were getting CD-quality, top-notch, taken-from-the-masters sound. Often, however, CDs were pressed off of inferior tapes. Then the record companies have the gall to say "Wait a minute - here's the real deal. You're welcome to buy it again." Then again, a lot of fans have a bad response when a performer tries his best to show them a good time. On the Ghost of Tom Joad tour in '95 and '96, Bruce Springsteen told fans from the stage to be quiet. This current solo acoustic tour finds him not only doing that, but passing out flyers before the show asking for quiet and explaining that drink sales also would end at showtime to keep the foot traffic down. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of fans appreciated hearing his songs unmarred, but I got a large number of complaints from people who resented "being told what to do at a concert" (though I suspect the beer cutoff was the biggest sticking point). As the movie and music industries are learning, fans won't pay good money for bad product and abuse. Word is that this is the last Ozzfest tour. If it's not, fans should make sure that it is anyway.
MUSIC - Synthesizer Innovator Robert A. Moog Dies - 08.22.2005, Associated Press -- He may not have been a rock star himself, but Robert A. Moog's influence can be heard in the music of bands from The Beatles to Yes, Herbie Hancock to Chick Corea. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and helped revolutionize rock, died Sunday of a brain tumor at his home in Asheville, according to his company's Web site. He was 71. "He brought electronic music to the masses and changed the way we hear music," said Charles Carlini, a New York City concert promoter. "He's like an Einstein of music." Moog's synthesizer allowed musicians to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial or sliding a knob. His instrument stood out from others on the market because it was small, light and versatile. "I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," Moog said in 2000. "They use my tools." The Beatles used a Moog synthesizer on their 1969 album "Abbey Road"; a Moog was used to create an eerie sound on the soundtrack to the 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange." A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to create a business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars. As a Ph.D. student in engineering physics at Cornell University, Moog developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules with composer Herb Deutsch. By the end of the year, R.A. Moog Co. marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer. "Suddenly, there was a whole group of people in the world looking for a new sound in music, and it picked up very quickly," said Deutsch, a Hofstra University emeritus music professor. "The Moog came at the right time." As extended keyboard solos in rock and funk - and later hip-hop and techno - took off, Moog's instrument was used in songs by Manfred Mann, Yes and Pink Floyd. "The sound defined progressive music as we know it," said Keith Emerson, keyboardist for the rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Keyboardist Walter (later Wendy) Carlos demonstrated the range of Moog's synthesizer by recording the hit album "Switched-On Bach" in 1968 using only the new instrument instead of an orchestra. "Every time you listen to the radio, you listen to Robert Moog's influence," said Carlini, who staged Moogfest in May 2004 to mark a half-century since Moog founded his first company. But the synthesizer's ability to mimic strings, horns and percussion has also threatened some musicians. In 2004, musicians extracted a promise from the Opera Company of Brooklyn to never use an advanced kind of synthesizer, called a virtual orchestra machine, in future productions. Moog spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville before turning full-time to running his new instrument business, which was renamed Moog Music in 2002. The roster of customers includes Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Beck, Phish, Sonic Youth and Widespread Panic. Moog is survived by his wife, Ileana; two daughters, a son, a stepdaughter, and his former wife, Shirleigh Moog. A public memorial is scheduled for Wednesday in Asheville.
MUSIC - Music Industry Worried About CD Burning - MBN 08.17.2005 -- Music copied onto blank recordable CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the bottom line of record stores and music labels than online file-sharing, the head of the recording industry's trade group said Friday. A report by AP says "Burned" CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing networks, said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America.The data, compiled by the market research firm NPD Group, suggested that about half of all recordings obtained by music fans in 2004 were due to authorized CD sales and about 4 percent from paid music downloads."CD burning is a problem that is really undermining sales," Bainwol said in an interview prior to speaking before about 750 members of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in San Diego Friday.Copy protection technology "is an answer to the problem that clearly the marketplace is going to see more of," he added.Album sales in the North America are down about 7 percent this year compared with a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan.Yet the recording industry has seen a lift from online music sales, which when factored in with album and sales of CD singles increased overall music sales through July to 21 percent over last year.The focus on CD burning Friday was welcomed by Alayna Hill-Alderman, who said she has seen music CD sales slide in recent years while sales of blank recordable CDs have soared."We are feeling the decline in our store sales, especially with regard to R&B and the hip-hop world," said Hill-Alderman, co-owner of Record Archive, a two-store company operating in Rochester, N.Y. "It's all due to burning. We've lost tremendous amounts of those sales to flea markets and bodegas."After experimenting with copy-protected CDs in Europe and Latin America in recent years, some record labels have begun releasing albums in North America with similar copy restrictions. The CDs typically allow users to burn no more than a handful of copies.Velvet Revolver's "Contraband," released last year, was equipped with such copy-protection technology and grabbed the top sales spot in its debut week.Some saw that as a sign music fans didn't mind CDs with copy restrictions. But other releases since, such as the latest Foo Fighters album, have sometimes spawned fan complaints that the restrictions go too far or create technology conflicts with portable audio devices.Simon Wright, chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group International, which oversees the Virgin chain of music stores, said he's in favor of labels releasing more albums in a copy-protected CD format, regardless of the potential for consumer backlash."If, particularly, the technology allows two-to-three burns, that's well within acceptable limits and I don't think why consumers should have any complaints," Wright said.
MUSIC - Falcon Beach looking for great songs
August 16, 2005 WINNIPEG -- Calling all indie bands! The producers of Global's upcoming Falcon Beach are looking for songs to be featured in the debut season of the one-hour drama series. Original Pictures and Insight Productions have put out a call for bands from coast to coast to submit their songs for consideration. Last January, Falcon Beach premiered on Global as a two-hour pilot that featured 16 songs from indie bands like Pilate, Doctor, Paper Moon and Matt Mays & El Torpedo, as well as songs from established major label artists like Sam Roberts, Holly McNarland and Sloan. Currently in production for a 13-part series, the Falcon Beach producers are planning to once again include some of the incredible musical talent that comes out of Canada in each episode of the series. "This is a unique opportunity for us to showcase homegrown Canadian talent and offer aspiring bands a chance to have their music heard internationally," said executive producers John Brunton and Kim Todd. In addition to being aired nationally on Global Television this winter, the series will air on the Disney-owned U.S. broadcaster ABC Family, which is available in 87 million homes across the U.S., during the summer of 2006. To be eligible for consideration, bands must have a professionally mastered recording available on CD. All entries must be submitted by Sept. 15, and include, a CD, bio, contact information and signed submission release. Submission releases are available for download on the Falcon Beach official website at www.falconbeach.ca Aspiring bands can send their submissions to: Sarah WebsterS.L. Feldman & Associates Ltd.Suite 200, 1505 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3Y4. email: webster@slfa.com Only bands whose songs have been chosen will be contacted. Submissions will not be returned.
MUSIC - Canadian Singer Leonard Cohen's fortune wiped out by Scott Stinson, National Post, Tuesday, August 16, 2005 -- Leonard Cohen is almost broke and embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with former close associates that runs contrary to his Zen Buddhist beliefs. Mr. Cohen's financial and legal woes are detailed in a Maclean's magazine report that describes how the poet, singer and songwriter discovered in October that his retirement savings had been whittled from an estimated US$5-million to about US$150,000. "I was devastated," the Maclean's story quotes Mr. Cohen as saying when he learned of his lost fortune, which has required him to mortgage a house to pay legal bills. Mr. Cohen, 70, has only been aware of his money problems for less than a year, but it seems they coincide with a 2001 decision to put the proceeds from an US$8-million sale of his copyright and royalty rights into a company called Traditional Holdings LLC. Maclean's says the new company was 99.5% owned by Kelley Lynch, Mr. Cohen's personal manager since 1988. Mr. Cohen held 0.5% of the company. The magazine story says the unusual arrangement was decided upon for tax reasons, but that Mr. Cohen trusted absolutely the motives of Ms. Lynch and the guidance of his long-time financial advisor, Neal Greenberg. Over the next few years, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado in June, Ms. Lynch borrowed repeatedly from Traditional Holdings coffers, sometimes taking out tens of thousands of dollars at a time. While Mr. Cohen fired Ms. Lynch upon learning of his depleted bank balance in October, he told Maclean's that Mr. Greenberg is also to blame for allowing the repeated withdrawals to continue without warning the singer-songwriter directly about his problems. Mr. Greenberg, whose money-management firm Agile Group is based in Denver, has insisted Mr. Cohen was aware of his financial dealings. He said he launched the June lawsuit against Mr. Cohen -- Ms. Lynch is also named -- because the singer-songwriter and his lawyer, Robert Kory, were trying to extort money from him. The lawsuit says Mr. Cohen and his lawyer threatened to go public with allegations of his financial mismanagement in attempt to ruin his business. "Agile states that Cohen and Kory falsely claim that Agile bears responsibility for the alleged misappropriation of Cohen's invested funds by Cohen's former manager," the lawsuit says. "The complaint also states that Cohen and Kory attempted to [and in some instances did] recruit third parties in their conspiracy and procure false testimony." Mr. Greenberg's lawsuit also says Mr. Cohen spent much of his missing millions in order to support his "extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle," although repeated newspaper profiles have described Mr. Cohen as someone who avoids the trappings of celebrity and maintains modest homes in Montreal and Los Angeles. Mr. Kory released a statement in June that said Mr. Greenberg's claim was "completely consistent with Agile's reckless disregard for its client and his investments." "We had hoped to reach an out-of-court settlement with Agile that returned to Mr. Cohen some portion of the retirement money the firm was authorized to administer on his behalf. Instead, in the middle of negotiations to determine Agile's responsibilities to Mr. Cohen to compensate him for money lost under their management, Agile launched a surprise attack in an effort to besmirch the reputation of one of its notable clients," the statement said, adding that a countersuit would be forthcoming. None of the allegations in Mr. Greenberg's lawsuit has been proven in court. Ms. Lynch told Maclean's she had done nothing wrong and said she would sue Mr. Cohen and others involved in the case. The magazine quotes Mr. Cohen as saying he only decided to sue upon realizing he would have to pay taxes on millions of dollars he no longer had. "I don't want anybody hurt," he says. "It's not my nature to pursue and contend with people that way."
MUSIC - Russia no longer on top of global piracy watchdog's blacklist
15/ 08/ 2005 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti, Alexei Peslyak) - Music and film piracy may be still a problem in Russia, but the country is no longer on top of the global piracy watchdog's blacklist, a senior copyright official in Russia said Monday. Alexander Romanenkov, the deputy head of Russia's Federal Office for Media Law Enforcement and Cultural Heritage Protection, acknowledged that copyright holders in the West often accused Russia of unauthorized copying of recorded music and film, and of a failure to pay royalties on copyrighted content. But he said that thanks to effective efforts by domestic law-enforcement agencies, Russia's share in global music piracy had now been cut to 7.3%, so the nation was no longer among the world top ten copyright violators on the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) blacklist. Romanenkov also said that a U.S.-Russian working group for intellectual property protection and a Russian government commission set up for the purpose in December 2002 were dealing with copyright-related concerns in intergovernmental relations.
MUSIC - Publishers Join Attack on Copyright Infringement in Karaoke
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Music publishers have joinedSybersound Records Inc. in a federal lawsuit significantly widening the attackagainst copyright infringement by karaoke record manufacturers. The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central Districtof Los Angeles alleges that many karaoke companies infringe on copyrights byusing unauthorized songs, failing to secure proper licenses or underreportingsales. The federal court action cites more than 25 copyrighted songs,including such popular titles as "Yeah!" "Cry Me a River," "MissIndependent," and "Let Me Blow Ya Mind." The suit alleges that these songswere used on albums without the permission of copyright holders. "With karaoke becoming more mainstream, songwriters have to take a standagainst infringement of their copyrights," said Carol Vincent, the owner ofCarol Vincent & Associates, a Nashville-based music publishing firm active inthe suit. "Since Sybersound filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, there has beenan outpouring of support from publishers," said Robert S. Meloni, counsel forthe publishers joining the action and Sybersound. "Publishers are nowpursuing direct copyright infringement claims and we are expecting many moresongwriters to take up this fight." Sybersound produces high-quality recordings for home-market karaoke useand obtains karaoke synchronization licenses from publishers for songsreleased on its albums and pays royalties based on units sold. The artist-run record company, based in Malibu, California filed suit instate court in May. "With publishers joining the legal challenge, Sybersoundhas dismissed its case from state court and is filing the new action in federal court, which has original jurisdiction of the copyright claims,"explained Peter L. Haviland of Kaye Scholer LLP, trial counsel for Sybersound.
MUSIC - Lil' Kim wins civil case over DVD by Canadian Press, August 10, 2005 NEW YORK -- Rapper Lil' Kim struck back at a man who testified against her at her criminal trial earlier this year, winning a court order preventing him from releasing a DVD using her name and image. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said Wednesday Lil' Kim was entitled to the victory after James (Lil Cease) Lloyd failed to show up at an afternoon court hearing to answer a civil lawsuit she filed against him. Lil' Kim's lawyer Londell McMillan said the lawsuit was a signal that the 30-year-old Grammy Award winner was taking charge of her life and business. "She's no longer fearful of the judicial system," he said. Lil' Kim, who was not required to be in court Wednesday, is scheduled to report to prison Sept. 19 to begin serving a year and a day for perjury and conspiracy convictions after she lied about a 2001 gunfight she witnessed outside a Manhattan radio station. She is the first big-name female rapper to go to prison. Lloyd and Antoine (Banger) Spain, Brooklyn rappers who once teamed with Lil' Kim in the Junior M.A.F.I.A. group, testified at her trial that they saw her at a radio station with her manager and a friend she denied seeing. In her lawsuit, Lil' Kim accused Lloyd of using her name and image to promote a DVD entitled, The Chronicles of Junior M.A.F.I.A. Part II: Reloaded. She said the DVD, like a predecessor, was unauthorized and improperly used her name, image and likeness. She said Lloyd had announced publicly that the DVD would include interviews with him and other members of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. explaining their involvement with her trial. McMillan said Lil' Kim might have consented to her name and image being used if the other rappers had asked. Lloyd, who didn't have a lawyer and was representing himself, couldn't be reached by telephone for comment Wednesday. Lil' Kim was the sidekick and mistress of the late Notorious B.I.G. As a solo artist, she has become known for her revealing outfits and suggestive lyrics. She won a Grammy in 2001 for her part in the hit remake of Lady Marmalade.
MUSIC - ADISQ CD gravés: l'ADISQ contre-attaque (piratage)
Marie-Élaine, Marie-Jo et Marie-Chantal ne seront plus clonées: l'ADISQ déclare la guerre aux revendeurs de disques copiés. La nouvelle campagne de sensibilisation au piratage de l'ADISQ a pas mal plus de mordant que les précédentes : c'est une campagne de répression qu'elle a lancée en envoyant des huissiers au marché aux puces de Saint-Eustache, samedi dernier, pour saisir la marchandise de revendeurs de disques copiés.C'est à la suite des demandes répétées de producteurs de disques et face à l'incapacité policière que l'ADISQ a décidé d'agir. « Ce genre de dossier relève du fédéral, mais les effectifs de la GRC en matière de propriété intellectuelle et de marques de commerce sont trop peu importants pour faire une réelle différence », a simplement laissé entendre la vice-présidente et directrice générale de l'ADISQ, Solange Drouin.1 pour 5 $, 5 pour 20 $« Le message qu'on veut faire passer est clair : copier un disque et le vendre est illégal, et on veut mettre un terme à cette pratique », a pour sa part indiqué le président de l'organisme, Yves-François Blanchet. En tant que producteur de disques (il est à la tête de Diffusion YFB, qui produit notamment les frères Lapointe), M. Blanchet est outré par la désinvolture affichée par ces revendeurs. « Ces gars admettent d'emblée qu'ils vendent des CD copiés. Ils vont même jusqu'à se louer des stands dans des marchés spécifiquement pour ça! »Lorsque les huissiers se sont présentés à eux samedi matin, à Saint-Eustache, ces revendeurs ne leur auraient opposé aucune résistance et leur auraient abandonné leur inventaire, « des centaines de disques », selon Solange Drouin.Ces disques ont l'air vrai : les pochettes sont identiques à celles des originaux et sont emballées. Mais à l'intérieur, le livret est absent, et le disque aussi ; à sa place se trouve un CD gravé de qualité inférieure à l'original.C'est de la petite business, selon M. Blanchet. « Ces CD se vendent 5 $, ou 5 pour 20 $. Les revendeurs ne vont pas faire des affaires d'or, mais on a quand même affaire à des gens qui se sont monté un système sur le dos de nos artistes », dit-il. Les revendeurs fonctionnent en suivant simplement le palmarès : si un artiste est bon vendeur, ils le « brûlent». Ordonnances Avant de pouvoir intervenir dans l'un ou l'autre des 350 marchés aux puces de la province, l'ADISQ a d'abord dû obtenir une ordonnance de la Cour supérieure. Le dossier soumis à la Cour était blindé, la fraude étant évidente. Mais cette ordonnance n'est valide que dix jours : l'ADISQ doit en effet retourner au Palais de justice vendredi pour demander une ordonnance spécifique aux trois revendeurs qui ont été saisis ce week-end, ainsi qu'une prolongation d'un an de leur première ordonnance. Yves-François Blanchet est confiant d'obtenir une telle prolongation, qui donnerait à l'ADISQ « les moyens de pression nécessaires pour enrayer cette pratique illégale, d'autant plus qu'on pourrait revisiter les marchés aux puces l'été prochain ». Le gérant de Marie-Chantal Toupin confronte lui-même les revendeurs. Le mari, gérant et partenaire de Marie-Chantal Toupin combat lui-même les revendeurs sur le terrain.E n tant que copropriétaire de l'étiquette de disques La Québécoise, Eduardo Da Costa est l'un des instigateurs de la nouvelle campagne de dissuasion de l'ADISQ. Il faisait d'ailleurs croisade seul contre les revendeurs de disques copiés en visitant personnellement les marchés aux puces, avant d'être épaulé par l'ADISQ. Il y confrontait les revendeurs, et repartait avec ses CD de Marie-Chantal Toupin. « Il y en avait 15 ou 20 en moyenne par stand, et les vendeurs me les donnaient sans discuter. Il y avait aussi tous les autres : Boom, Éric Lapointe...» Ayant vu le problème de face, l'homme a ses propres solutions en tête. « C'est pas du crime organisé, mais c'est du monde organisé, ça se voit à l'emballage. Au lieu de saisir l'inventaire des vendeurs, on devrait remonter à la source et prendre les producteurs ». Perte de qualité Et, parallèlement, faire une campagne similaire à celle qu'a faite la SAQ pour ses vins, en mettant l'accent sur la qualité : « Quand tu écoutes un CD copié, la perte de qualité est flagrante. Si les gens en étaient conscients, ils n'hésiteraient pas à payer quelques dollars de plus pour avoir la vraie affaire ». Cela dit, Eduardo Da Costa approuve et appuie les efforts déployés par l'ADISQ, soulignant la recrudescence de l'intérêt des Québécois pour leur musique. « Nos artistes vivent une belle phase en ce moment. Si on leur sape leurs revenus, on va leur couper les jambes et nous pénaliser nous-mêmes ». Source: Éric Trudel, Journal de Montréal, 09 aout 2005
Marie-Élaine, Marie-Jo et Marie-Chantal ne seront plus clonées: l'ADISQ déclare la guerre aux revendeurs de disques copiés. La nouvelle campagne de sensibilisation au piratage de l'ADISQ a pas mal plus de mordant que les précédentes : c'est une campagne de répression qu'elle a lancée en envoyant des huissiers au marché aux puces de Saint-Eustache, samedi dernier, pour saisir la marchandise de revendeurs de disques copiés.C'est à la suite des demandes répétées de producteurs de disques et face à l'incapacité policière que l'ADISQ a décidé d'agir. « Ce genre de dossier relève du fédéral, mais les effectifs de la GRC en matière de propriété intellectuelle et de marques de commerce sont trop peu importants pour faire une réelle différence », a simplement laissé entendre la vice-présidente et directrice générale de l'ADISQ, Solange Drouin.1 pour 5 $, 5 pour 20 $« Le message qu'on veut faire passer est clair : copier un disque et le vendre est illégal, et on veut mettre un terme à cette pratique », a pour sa part indiqué le président de l'organisme, Yves-François Blanchet. En tant que producteur de disques (il est à la tête de Diffusion YFB, qui produit notamment les frères Lapointe), M. Blanchet est outré par la désinvolture affichée par ces revendeurs. « Ces gars admettent d'emblée qu'ils vendent des CD copiés. Ils vont même jusqu'à se louer des stands dans des marchés spécifiquement pour ça! »Lorsque les huissiers se sont présentés à eux samedi matin, à Saint-Eustache, ces revendeurs ne leur auraient opposé aucune résistance et leur auraient abandonné leur inventaire, « des centaines de disques », selon Solange Drouin.Ces disques ont l'air vrai : les pochettes sont identiques à celles des originaux et sont emballées. Mais à l'intérieur, le livret est absent, et le disque aussi ; à sa place se trouve un CD gravé de qualité inférieure à l'original.C'est de la petite business, selon M. Blanchet. « Ces CD se vendent 5 $, ou 5 pour 20 $. Les revendeurs ne vont pas faire des affaires d'or, mais on a quand même affaire à des gens qui se sont monté un système sur le dos de nos artistes », dit-il. Les revendeurs fonctionnent en suivant simplement le palmarès : si un artiste est bon vendeur, ils le « brûlent». Ordonnances Avant de pouvoir intervenir dans l'un ou l'autre des 350 marchés aux puces de la province, l'ADISQ a d'abord dû obtenir une ordonnance de la Cour supérieure. Le dossier soumis à la Cour était blindé, la fraude étant évidente. Mais cette ordonnance n'est valide que dix jours : l'ADISQ doit en effet retourner au Palais de justice vendredi pour demander une ordonnance spécifique aux trois revendeurs qui ont été saisis ce week-end, ainsi qu'une prolongation d'un an de leur première ordonnance. Yves-François Blanchet est confiant d'obtenir une telle prolongation, qui donnerait à l'ADISQ « les moyens de pression nécessaires pour enrayer cette pratique illégale, d'autant plus qu'on pourrait revisiter les marchés aux puces l'été prochain ». Le gérant de Marie-Chantal Toupin confronte lui-même les revendeurs. Le mari, gérant et partenaire de Marie-Chantal Toupin combat lui-même les revendeurs sur le terrain.E n tant que copropriétaire de l'étiquette de disques La Québécoise, Eduardo Da Costa est l'un des instigateurs de la nouvelle campagne de dissuasion de l'ADISQ. Il faisait d'ailleurs croisade seul contre les revendeurs de disques copiés en visitant personnellement les marchés aux puces, avant d'être épaulé par l'ADISQ. Il y confrontait les revendeurs, et repartait avec ses CD de Marie-Chantal Toupin. « Il y en avait 15 ou 20 en moyenne par stand, et les vendeurs me les donnaient sans discuter. Il y avait aussi tous les autres : Boom, Éric Lapointe...» Ayant vu le problème de face, l'homme a ses propres solutions en tête. « C'est pas du crime organisé, mais c'est du monde organisé, ça se voit à l'emballage. Au lieu de saisir l'inventaire des vendeurs, on devrait remonter à la source et prendre les producteurs ». Perte de qualité Et, parallèlement, faire une campagne similaire à celle qu'a faite la SAQ pour ses vins, en mettant l'accent sur la qualité : « Quand tu écoutes un CD copié, la perte de qualité est flagrante. Si les gens en étaient conscients, ils n'hésiteraient pas à payer quelques dollars de plus pour avoir la vraie affaire ». Cela dit, Eduardo Da Costa approuve et appuie les efforts déployés par l'ADISQ, soulignant la recrudescence de l'intérêt des Québécois pour leur musique. « Nos artistes vivent une belle phase en ce moment. Si on leur sape leurs revenus, on va leur couper les jambes et nous pénaliser nous-mêmes ». Source: Éric Trudel, Journal de Montréal, 09 aout 2005
MUSIC - FCC's Martin launches payola probe by David B. Wilkerson MarketWatch San Francisco Aug. 8, 2005 -- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said Monday that the commission's Enforcement Bureau will investigate allegations that Sony BMG Music Entertainment improperly used its influence to get its songs played on radio stations. This practice, known in the radio and record industry for decades, is usually referred to as "payola." Martin said in a statement that he has instructed the FCC's enforcement wing to look into a settlement reached last month between Sony BMG and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. A year-long probe by Spitzer's office revealed that Sony BMG executives were "well aware" of improper inducements for airplay and "made sure" the company's music got enough exposure from the radio stations involved to justify the payoffs. "If the Bureau determines violations of the payola rules have occurred, the Commission will take swift action," Martin said Monday. "In addition, if the Bureau is presented with evidence of payola rule violations outside of the Sony BMG Music Entertainment settlement, it is to thoroughly investigate those complaints as well." Sony BMG had offered "outright bribes," including electronics, vacation packages and other valuable items, to radio-station programmers, Spitzer's office said. The music giant said in a statement in July that "various employees pursued some radio promotion practices on behalf of the company that were wrong and improper," and that it "apologizes for such conduct." "The FCC has longstanding rules prohibiting payola," Martin said. "These rules serve the important purpose of ensuring that the listening public knows when someone is seeking to influence them. "... While payola may not be a widespread practice in the broadcasting industry, to the extent it is going on, it must stop," he said. Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony and German media giant Bertelsmann AG. Sony's U.S.-listed shares declined 3 cents to $33.15 on Monday. Bertelsmann shares were down less than 1% in Frankfurt.
MUSIC - Apple set to pay out levies on iPods
Canadian Press August 8, 2005 TORONTO -- People who bought iPods when levies were being imposed on digital music players will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada said Monday. "Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid," the statement from Apple said. Late last month, the Supreme Court of Canada backed the Federal Court of Canada decision quashing the levy on iPods and other digital music players. The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) has collected a tax built into the price of the devices since December 2003. The group is a non-profit agency that collects such tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies. The CPCC stopped charging the levy in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, a group representing retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada. The tariff, while it was in effect, was $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one gigabyte, $15 for one to 10 GBs and $25 for more than 10 GB. The CPCC had argued that since the new technology opened yet another avenue to make illegal copies of songs, a levy should be collected on behalf of music creators. Approximately $4 million was collected from sales of digital audio recorders in the one-year period.
Canadian Press August 8, 2005 TORONTO -- People who bought iPods when levies were being imposed on digital music players will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada said Monday. "Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid," the statement from Apple said. Late last month, the Supreme Court of Canada backed the Federal Court of Canada decision quashing the levy on iPods and other digital music players. The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) has collected a tax built into the price of the devices since December 2003. The group is a non-profit agency that collects such tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies. The CPCC stopped charging the levy in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, a group representing retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada. The tariff, while it was in effect, was $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one gigabyte, $15 for one to 10 GBs and $25 for more than 10 GB. The CPCC had argued that since the new technology opened yet another avenue to make illegal copies of songs, a levy should be collected on behalf of music creators. Approximately $4 million was collected from sales of digital audio recorders in the one-year period.
MUSIC - New company in charge of Graceland by Woody Baird Canadian Press, August 06, 2005 MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The pilgrims will still weep at Elvis Presley's grave, and the souvenir shops will still swarm with credit-card waving fans, an occasional black pompadour hardly drawing a glance. But change is in the air: strangers are in Graceland. Lisa Marie Presley has sold the business side of her father's estate and turned over his famous, white-columned house to CKX Inc., an entertainment company that also owns the American Idol TV show. Now, some of fans who flock to Memphis each year to commemorate Presley's death on Aug. 16, 1977, are worried their annual homecoming won't be quite so homey. "They call themselves a company now," said Jean Donovan, a fan from Derry, N.H. Of course, Elvis Presley Enterprises was already a company. Forbes listed Presley as the world's top earning dead entertainer last year. Graceland managers say the Elvis business, which brings in $40 million US a year, is poised to grow even more. CKX says it's looking into "Elvis-related attractions" in places like Las Vegas, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. No details have been announced. "Elvis sells all over the world, and that's where the real opportunity for growth lies for us, to take more of Elvis and Graceland out to the world," said Jack Soden, chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises, now a subsidiary of New York-based CKX. Soden oversaw Graceland's opening in 1982, and he's staying on the job. But the Elvis faithful are ever-watchful for hints of change at Graceland, where Presley is buried in a small garden. "I know a lot of the older fans are in an uproar," said Kathie Bryson, a fan from St. Louis. "But then, anything that changes down there puts them in an uproar." Elvis won't be the only American idol in the stables of CKX, a company founded by Robert F.X. Sillerman, an investor who specializes in media and entertainment. A month after the Elvis deal, CKX acquired 19 Entertainment, the British company that produces the TV show American Idol and its British predecessor, Pop Idol. CKX also has an agreement to buy MBST, a Hollywood talent-management company, and expects to make other acquisitions. CKX says its strategy is to buy companies that control "established entertainment content" - which could include music, TV, films and video games - and then to enhance the value of those companies. Sillerman was also a leading founder of SFX Entertainment, a group of sports promotion and live concert properties that sold to Clear Channel Communications for more than $4 billion five years ago. Bishop Cheen, an entertainment analyst for Wachovia Securities, said Sillerman will likely focus on his control of the rights to Presley's name and leave the day-to-day operations of Graceland alone. "He's not known for sacking and burning and pillaging," Cheen said. "He is known for adding value and taking profits." The company went public earlier this year by buying an inactive public company, Sports Entertainment Enterprises Inc. Sillerman changed the name to CKX - for "Content is King," with a final "X" as a signature of his businesses - and simultaneously bought the Presley business in February for about $100 million in cash and stock. The company raised $235 million in an $11-per-share stock offering in June. All but about $50 million went to pay off debts, including the cost of the Elvis business. Shares have been trading recently between $13 and $14 per share. Lisa Marie Presley got $50 million at the sale, stock in CKX and kept a 15 per cent interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises, along with title to Graceland and her father's personal possessions. Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie's mother and Presley's ex-wife, got $6.5 million and a 10-year consulting contract with CKX at $560,000 a year. She is also on the company's board of directors. When Presley died at age 42 of prescription drug abuse and heart disease, his finances were in sad shape. But led by Priscilla Presley, the estate formed Elvis Presley Enterprises, opened Graceland to the public and began a campaign to solidify the legal rights to make money on Elvis's name and image. Now it's CKX's job to keep that going. Soden said he doesn't expect CKX to make major adjustments in how Graceland and its complex of souvenir shops and museums are run. "They said when we were getting to know them, 1You know, we're not out trying to buy problems. We don't want to buy companies that we have to fix,' " Soden said. For the fans, there's little concern that Elvis's light will dim. They worry instead about access to Graceland and whether an expanding marketplace will show Presley the reverence they believe he deserves. "We're all just waiting to see what changes, if any, will be made," said Jeanne Kalweit of the Elvis Presley TCB Fan Club of Chicago. Cheen understands how seriously the Kingdom takes all of this. "(Sillerman) is a New Yorker and an outsider, so he's got to be under suspicion," he said. "But he's a businessman, you know, not General Sherman."
MUSIC - Montreal indie scene squirms in spotlight: Arcade Fire started the explosion by July 28, 2005 Associated Press by Ari Bendersky MONTREAL -- To find the heart and soul of the Montreal music scene on a recent evening, all one had to do was head to the Mile End neighbourhood, walk into a quaint coffee shop and pop into the intimate back room. About 11 p.m., Former Hot Hot Heat member Dante DeCaro stepped up to the mike at Pharmacie Esperanza. With his guitar slung over one shoulder and harmonica fastened around his neck, DeCaro projected a voice that sounded like pure Dylan -- whiny, melodic, captivating. Standing around were many of DeCaro's friends and fans, including Nick Robinson, an organizer of the influential Pop Montreal International Music Festival; Olga Goreas of the experimental ambient group Besnard Lakes; Nick Diamonds and Jamie Thompson from the now-defunct, once-hopeful Unicorns; and electronic artist Tim Hecker, also known as the techno rebel Jetone. Backing DeCaro on drums was Arlen Thompson of the indie buzz group Wolf Parade, which is scheduled to drop its Sub Pop Records debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, in September. In many cities, this would qualify as a see-be-seen crowd. But in Montreal, it's the status quo. This is one cosmopolitan city where celebrity and pretence don't exist -- just a strong community of musicians and artists dedicated to their craft. They don't necessarily need approval from the outside world, despite the onslaught of international media attention. But now that it has arrived -- making Montreal a successor to former musical "hotbeds" like Seattle; Austin, Texas; Omaha, Neb.; and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn -- many here have mixed feelings. "There is a kind of knee-jerk fear reaction among certain people that this is all bad -- that people are going to come here and rape and pillage the pure underground scene," said Dan Seligman, co-founder and creative director of Pop Montreal. "If the attention goes away, then A&R people ("artist and repertoire" executives from music labels) won't swoop in, allowing bands to grow in the proper fashion," said Pop Montreal's Robinson. "We're just musicians trying to do our own thing. Then we got thrust into the spotlight -- we banded together to protect ourselves." Protection from what, exactly, is unclear. Protection from allowing clever musicians and talented artists to gain more attention than if the media hadn't started poking around? Protection from letting some of the quality music get out? "I don't agree with wanting (the spotlight) to go away," said Gary Worsley, co-owner of Montreal-based indie label Alien8 Recordings, which has put out albums by the Unicorns, Merzbow and Kiss Me Deadly, which recently toured with uber-hot group Bloc Party. "It's good for the city. Bands like Pony Up have been able to get a lot of hype on one EP, which would not have happened if we didn't have this attention." What initially brought on this attention can be pegged, in part, to the explosion of one group: the Arcade Fire. Last fall, indie music fans and bloggers sent the Arcade Fire's MP3s around the Internet at breakneck speed. Eventually the band shipped 220,000 copies of its debut, Funeral, on independent label Merge Records -- something fairly uncommon for an indie release without a large distribution partner. This prompted media outlets like Rolling Stone to dub Montreal the "next big scene." But years before the Arcade Fire blew up, many bands were already creating a stir up north. In the mid-1990s, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, an experimental post-rock orchestra, gained international prominence without major label backing, and enjoyed some financial success. Where Godspeed's members could have taken their money and ran, they chose to remain immersed in Montreal's music community. "People reinvested themselves and their money into studios and opened clubs and cafes that gave back to the artists and the community," Seligman said. "The idea of reinvesting your cultural enterprises into the city is important." Godspeed guitarist and current A Silver Mt. Zion member Efrim Menuck, along with local producer Howard Bilerman and Godspeed member Thierry Amar, opened the influential Hotel2Tango recording studio, where the likes of Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, the Dears, all-girl rock outfit Pony Up! and the psychedelic noise-rock group Et Sans have all laid down tracks. Godspeed bassist Mauro Pezzente and his girlfriend/partner Kiva Stimac gave those artists a few venues to put on shows. The pair run three newer music venues in the now-trendy Plateau Mont-Royal area -- Casa Del Popolo, El Salon and Sala Rossa -- that also double as either a bar, restaurant or cafe. "When I first moved here, there were only like three venues to play in," said Jonathan Cummins, founder of the hard rock band Bionic and a Montreal Mirror columnist. "Today there are so many venues, you can see five different shows a night." Even without big financial success, people give back to the community in other ways. Andre GuDerette, member of the psychedelic noise rock outfit AIDS Wolf, teamed with friend Matt Miller to form Mandatory Moustache, a music promotions company that launched a popular biweekly Tuesday night music series at restaurant/club Le Divan Orange. The bands that play these nights are always local but not necessarily known, a strong reason why Mandatory Moustache picks them for the bill. The evening has built a reputation for showcasing emerging talent across many genres including country, folk, pop and electro. "A lot of times people won't know who the bands are, but will go just because it's a Mandatory Moustache night," Cummins said. "They're young and they think it's wicked and the place to be." Nights like this have been able to thrive for several reasons, including government subsidies for some bands, Montreal's low rent -- Besnard Lakes member and Breakglass Studio founder Jace Lasek pays about $1,800 US per month for his 465-square-metre studio, and his four-bedroom apartment costs $720 - and an attitude of "if you want to do something, do it." There's a strong experimental music scene, lead by the likes of AIDS Wolf, The Besnard Lakes and Sam Shalabi, who all play music in disparate genres: noise rock, avant garde ambient and psychedelic experimental with Middle Eastern influences, respectively. Even alt-country artists like The Adam Brown and neo-folkies like John Lennox have filled particular musical voids. But Montreal wouldn't be Montreal without its majority French community. While much of the spotlight is currently on English-speaking bands, Montreal has a thriving Francophone scene - and many musicians in Anglo bands are of French descent, like Arcade Fire's RDegine Chassagne and all the members of the cartoonish post-punk rock outfit Les Georges Leningrad. But Montreal music always seems to come back to the notion of community. After Wolf Parade - which had never worked with a producer - returned from troubled recording sessions in Portland, Ore., for Apologies to the Queen Mary, singer Dan Boeckner turned to his friend Lasek to remix the songs, resulting in a solid alt-rock effort. When asked about the demise of Unicorns, no one felt comfortable discussing the situation - because it was their friends' business. But whatever happened behind closed doors must have caused a creative spark because Nick Diamonds and Jamie Thompson are now working on not one, but two new projects together: Th' Corn Gangg, a hip-hop outfit with Los Angeles underground rappers Bus Driver and Subtitle; and Islands, a straight-up pop group. So whenever the press attention fades away, it's likely the buzz will pick up somewhere else. "(The spotlight) isn't going to be here forever," said Alien8's Worsley. "There's another scene ready to explode around the corner."
MUSIC - Musique, piraterie et société: l'empire contre-attaque
7 juillet, 2005 par André Mondoux -- Semaine importante pour l'industrie du disque alors que la Cour Suprême des États-Unis a statué que les opérateurs de logiciels et de services de partage, par le biais desquels s'effectue le piratage de musique, pouvaient être l'objet de poursuites. Autrement dit, vous fournissez un outil qui peut être mal utilisé, vous êtes responsable et à ce titre, bien sûr, passible de poursuites judiciaires pour obtenir réparation monétaire. Étonnant que la même logique ne prévaut pas avec les armes à feu, le puissant groupe de lobbying NRA stipulant que ce ne sont pas les armes qui tuent les gens, mais bien les gens eux-mêmes… Au Canada, où l'on suit habituellement les traces de notre géant voisin, mais avec un peu plus de modération, le projet de loi C-60 sur les droits d'auteur propose des modifications qui vont dans le même sens : selon plusieurs observateurs, le projet fait pencher la balance du côté des détenteurs de propriété intellectuelle au détriment des usagers, en facilitant la voie aux poursuites judiciaires afin de lutter contre la cause principale du déclin des ventes : le piratage. Mais qui sont les véritables « pirates » ? Il faut bien le reconnaître, la causalité entre le piratage et les pertes de revenus subies par l'industrie entre 1998 et 2003 n'ait jamais été démontrée. Ainsi, face à la multiplication des offres en matière de divertissements (CD, DVD, cinéma, jeux sur consoles, téléphonie cellulaire et services numériques Web), on imagine aisément que le budget du consommateur était mis à l'épreuve et qu'à budget égal un ou plusieurs secteurs devaient nécessairement en souffrir les contrecoups ; d'autant plus que pour la période du déclin des ventes de l'industrie du disque a été marquée par une tendance à la baisse du produit domestique brut. Et le « piratage » n'était-il que du piratage ? Selon un sondage mené par la firme de recherche PEW Internet, 50 % de ceux qui téléchargent de la musique de l'Internet ont acheté le CD équivalent « la plupart du temps » ou « parfois », contre seulement 26 % qui ont avoué ne jamais acheter l'équivalent sur CD de ce qu'ils téléchargeaient2. Sous cet angle, une bonne partie du « piratage » est en fait une forme potentielle de marketing où les acheteurs peuvent goûter avant de manger (31 % des « pirates » ont téléchargé des pièces d'auteurs qu'ils ne connaissaient pas). De plus, si les ventes globales ont subi des baisses, plusieurs marchés nationaux de l'industrie du disque ont connu des hausses significatives de leurs ventes au cours de la période 1998-2003 : Turquie (+126 %), Royaume-Uni (+ 31 %), Irlande (+28 %), Australie (+28 %) et Mexique (+ 19%)3. Si le piratage était exclusivement la cause du déclin des ventes, alors comment expliquer que ces régions, entre 2000 et 2005 ont connu une forte augmentation du nombre d'usagers de l'Internet (Mexique +351 %), (Irlande +162 %), (Autriche +120 %) ? Si le piratage était la seule cause du déclin, ne devrait-on pas, au contraire, observer que les pays connaissant la plus forte augmentation d'usagers (donc potentiellement plus de pirates) soit également ceux où les ventes ont le plus souffert ? Enfin, un autre coupable, encore plus sournois celui-là, est le piratage industriel de musique, ces installations illégales qui produisent des facsimilés des CD vedettes de l'heure et qui les vendent à des prix alléchants. Le crime est ici triple : les droits d'auteurs sont clairement lésés, le consommateur se fait escroquer et, surtout, les distributeurs perdent explicitement de l'argent, car il y a bel et bien eu vente, contrairement au « piratage » où les individus peuvent effectivement télécharger des versions MP3 de pièces qu'ils ont déjà ou télécharger une pièce qui les incitera à acheter l'album. Selon les chiffres publiés par l'IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) dans son rapport annuel 2004, 34 % de tous les CD de musique vendus au monde (un sur trois) sont des contrefaçons illégales et que ce marché représentait l'an dernier une valeur globale de plus de 4,6 milliards de dollars US. Le plus grand marché pour ce type d'activité est celui de la Chine avec un taux de piratage de l'ordre de 85 % et où le marché noir est le double du marché légitime5 . Le rapport de l'IFPI souligne que « l'absence d'une évidente coopération entre les différentes agences gouvernementales couplée avec un manque de volonté politique et de ressources au niveau gouvernemental de première ligne ont empêché la réalisation de tout progrès substantiel. » De toute évidence, il est plus facile d'intimider des jeunes adolescents par la menace de représailles judiciaires, la principale tactique adoptée par les groupuscules nationaux du lobby de l'industrie mondiale du disque, que de boycotter la Chine pour son laxisme envers un marché illégal de près d'un demi-milliard de dollars US. C'est que, voyez-vous, les yeux mercantiles sont aisément tentés de se détourner de certains irritants moraux face au « gigantesque marché du disque potentiel de la Chine ».
7 juillet, 2005 par André Mondoux -- Semaine importante pour l'industrie du disque alors que la Cour Suprême des États-Unis a statué que les opérateurs de logiciels et de services de partage, par le biais desquels s'effectue le piratage de musique, pouvaient être l'objet de poursuites. Autrement dit, vous fournissez un outil qui peut être mal utilisé, vous êtes responsable et à ce titre, bien sûr, passible de poursuites judiciaires pour obtenir réparation monétaire. Étonnant que la même logique ne prévaut pas avec les armes à feu, le puissant groupe de lobbying NRA stipulant que ce ne sont pas les armes qui tuent les gens, mais bien les gens eux-mêmes… Au Canada, où l'on suit habituellement les traces de notre géant voisin, mais avec un peu plus de modération, le projet de loi C-60 sur les droits d'auteur propose des modifications qui vont dans le même sens : selon plusieurs observateurs, le projet fait pencher la balance du côté des détenteurs de propriété intellectuelle au détriment des usagers, en facilitant la voie aux poursuites judiciaires afin de lutter contre la cause principale du déclin des ventes : le piratage. Mais qui sont les véritables « pirates » ? Il faut bien le reconnaître, la causalité entre le piratage et les pertes de revenus subies par l'industrie entre 1998 et 2003 n'ait jamais été démontrée. Ainsi, face à la multiplication des offres en matière de divertissements (CD, DVD, cinéma, jeux sur consoles, téléphonie cellulaire et services numériques Web), on imagine aisément que le budget du consommateur était mis à l'épreuve et qu'à budget égal un ou plusieurs secteurs devaient nécessairement en souffrir les contrecoups ; d'autant plus que pour la période du déclin des ventes de l'industrie du disque a été marquée par une tendance à la baisse du produit domestique brut. Et le « piratage » n'était-il que du piratage ? Selon un sondage mené par la firme de recherche PEW Internet, 50 % de ceux qui téléchargent de la musique de l'Internet ont acheté le CD équivalent « la plupart du temps » ou « parfois », contre seulement 26 % qui ont avoué ne jamais acheter l'équivalent sur CD de ce qu'ils téléchargeaient2. Sous cet angle, une bonne partie du « piratage » est en fait une forme potentielle de marketing où les acheteurs peuvent goûter avant de manger (31 % des « pirates » ont téléchargé des pièces d'auteurs qu'ils ne connaissaient pas). De plus, si les ventes globales ont subi des baisses, plusieurs marchés nationaux de l'industrie du disque ont connu des hausses significatives de leurs ventes au cours de la période 1998-2003 : Turquie (+126 %), Royaume-Uni (+ 31 %), Irlande (+28 %), Australie (+28 %) et Mexique (+ 19%)3. Si le piratage était exclusivement la cause du déclin des ventes, alors comment expliquer que ces régions, entre 2000 et 2005 ont connu une forte augmentation du nombre d'usagers de l'Internet (Mexique +351 %), (Irlande +162 %), (Autriche +120 %) ? Si le piratage était la seule cause du déclin, ne devrait-on pas, au contraire, observer que les pays connaissant la plus forte augmentation d'usagers (donc potentiellement plus de pirates) soit également ceux où les ventes ont le plus souffert ? Enfin, un autre coupable, encore plus sournois celui-là, est le piratage industriel de musique, ces installations illégales qui produisent des facsimilés des CD vedettes de l'heure et qui les vendent à des prix alléchants. Le crime est ici triple : les droits d'auteurs sont clairement lésés, le consommateur se fait escroquer et, surtout, les distributeurs perdent explicitement de l'argent, car il y a bel et bien eu vente, contrairement au « piratage » où les individus peuvent effectivement télécharger des versions MP3 de pièces qu'ils ont déjà ou télécharger une pièce qui les incitera à acheter l'album. Selon les chiffres publiés par l'IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) dans son rapport annuel 2004, 34 % de tous les CD de musique vendus au monde (un sur trois) sont des contrefaçons illégales et que ce marché représentait l'an dernier une valeur globale de plus de 4,6 milliards de dollars US. Le plus grand marché pour ce type d'activité est celui de la Chine avec un taux de piratage de l'ordre de 85 % et où le marché noir est le double du marché légitime5 . Le rapport de l'IFPI souligne que « l'absence d'une évidente coopération entre les différentes agences gouvernementales couplée avec un manque de volonté politique et de ressources au niveau gouvernemental de première ligne ont empêché la réalisation de tout progrès substantiel. » De toute évidence, il est plus facile d'intimider des jeunes adolescents par la menace de représailles judiciaires, la principale tactique adoptée par les groupuscules nationaux du lobby de l'industrie mondiale du disque, que de boycotter la Chine pour son laxisme envers un marché illégal de près d'un demi-milliard de dollars US. C'est que, voyez-vous, les yeux mercantiles sont aisément tentés de se détourner de certains irritants moraux face au « gigantesque marché du disque potentiel de la Chine ».
MUSIC - Doors members lose right to name
Associated Press Tuesday, July 26, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- A judge has issued a permanent injunction banning two members of the Doors from using the band's name and any likeness of late front man Jim Morrison to promote a renewed version of the band. Superior Court Judge Gregory Alarcon in a judgment released Friday sided with Doors drummer John Densmore, who sued keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger in February 2003 for breach of contract. Manzarek and Krieger have been touring without Densmore under the name The Doors of the 21st Century. Densmore's lawyer, Jerome Mandel, said that band members had a unique "unanimity requirement" that gives anyone a right to veto a move involving the Doors. Morrison, the band's charismatic lead singer, died in Paris in 1971 and left all of his property to girlfriend Pamela Courson. After she died in 1974, her estate was divided among her parents and Morrison's parents. The Morrison and Courson estates both were included as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "John has always held as his primary motive to preserve the legacy of the band," Mandel said Monday. "This wasn't filed for economic reasons, it was to stop them from calling themselves the Doors." The injunction also orders Manzarek and Krieger to turn over profits from their performances to the Doors' partnership, which includes both of them along with Densmore and the two estates. The Doors of the 21st Century has earned at least $3 million to $4 million US, Mandel said. Tom Vitorino, manager for The Doors of the 21st Century, did not immediately respond to an e-mail request Monday for an interview. In a 43-page ruling, the court outlined the Doors' policy of sharing songwriting credits and also found that the three surviving members agreed after Morrison's death to a rule of unanimity. The ruling cited Manzarek's own liner notes to his spoken word compact disc Myth & Reality: "The Doors all had veto power. If one guy didn't want to do something it wasn't done. That's the way it always worked out with the Doors. It was a four-way split of all the Doors' money, totally democratic with veto power." The Los Angeles-based band, which was inducted in 1992 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is best known for its hits Break on Through, L.A. Woman and Light My Fire.
Associated Press Tuesday, July 26, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- A judge has issued a permanent injunction banning two members of the Doors from using the band's name and any likeness of late front man Jim Morrison to promote a renewed version of the band. Superior Court Judge Gregory Alarcon in a judgment released Friday sided with Doors drummer John Densmore, who sued keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger in February 2003 for breach of contract. Manzarek and Krieger have been touring without Densmore under the name The Doors of the 21st Century. Densmore's lawyer, Jerome Mandel, said that band members had a unique "unanimity requirement" that gives anyone a right to veto a move involving the Doors. Morrison, the band's charismatic lead singer, died in Paris in 1971 and left all of his property to girlfriend Pamela Courson. After she died in 1974, her estate was divided among her parents and Morrison's parents. The Morrison and Courson estates both were included as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "John has always held as his primary motive to preserve the legacy of the band," Mandel said Monday. "This wasn't filed for economic reasons, it was to stop them from calling themselves the Doors." The injunction also orders Manzarek and Krieger to turn over profits from their performances to the Doors' partnership, which includes both of them along with Densmore and the two estates. The Doors of the 21st Century has earned at least $3 million to $4 million US, Mandel said. Tom Vitorino, manager for The Doors of the 21st Century, did not immediately respond to an e-mail request Monday for an interview. In a 43-page ruling, the court outlined the Doors' policy of sharing songwriting credits and also found that the three surviving members agreed after Morrison's death to a rule of unanimity. The ruling cited Manzarek's own liner notes to his spoken word compact disc Myth & Reality: "The Doors all had veto power. If one guy didn't want to do something it wasn't done. That's the way it always worked out with the Doors. It was a four-way split of all the Doors' money, totally democratic with veto power." The Los Angeles-based band, which was inducted in 1992 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is best known for its hits Break on Through, L.A. Woman and Light My Fire.
MUSIC - Ashanti Loses Court Case
July 22, 2005 -- R&B beauty ASHANTI has been ordered to pay $630,000 to her producer GENARD PARKER for breach of contract. The Grammy winner worked with PARKER in 1996 and 1997 when she lived in Long Island but later abandoned him when she became commercially successful. PARKER happily released the singer from their contract when she landed a record deal but insists she agreed to let him produce two songs on her first album for a $50,000 advance plus royalties. The singer claimed PARKER did not live up to the terms of the new deal and that his equipment was so crude, she had to sing in his bathroom. The New York federal jury found in favour of PARKER yesterday, but ASHANTI's lawyers are convinced the decision will be overturned on appeal. ASHANTI's lawyer HARRY STOKES says, "We think the jury got confused somewhat, particularly on the damages. We feel confident when this is said and done we won't have to pay out anything." PARKER's lawyer JASMINE KHALILI says the verdict is a "huge victory" and adds, "They never acknowledged what he had done, it takes a jury to get a thank you."Identity of file sharers protected in rulingMay 19, 2005 Angela Pacienza Canadian Press TORONTO -- The music industry was dealt another legal blow Thursday in its quest to curb online file sharing when an attempt to smoke out the identities of 29 alleged uploaders was quashed. But the Federal Court of Appeal offered encouragement in its 27-page ruling by giving the Canadian Recording Industry Association a roadmap of how to handle future cases. "I would consider it a complete success," said Richard Pfohl, the music industry's lawyer. "It provides us with a blueprint to proceed. We know exactly what we need to do." For over a year CRIA has been trying to figure out who's behind pseudonyms such as Geekboy(at)KaZaA and Jordana(at)KaZaA. Finding out the identities from Internet service providers, such as Shaw, Rogers and Bell, is a necessary step in order to launch lawsuits against people who use services like Kazaa and IMesh. The two are among 29 individuals suspected of collectively making 43,541 songs available to any web surfer for free. Writing on behalf of the three-judge panel, Justice Edgar Sexton said much of the evidence was hearsay posing a risk that "innocent persons might have their privacy invaded and also be named as defendant where it is not warranted." The evidence was gathered by workers at New York-based MediaSentry and presented by the company's president who had only second-hand knowledge of how it was collected. Dating back to late 2003, it was based on screen grabs showing a list of songs placed in a shared folder. Those representing the public's interest called the ruling a victory. "The decision recognizes and affirms the right of privacy for individual Canadians," said Howard Knopf, a copyright lawyer with Macera and Jarzyna in Ottawa who represented the public's interest during the case. However, Knopf cautioned that a portion of the ruling "opens the door to the kind of shock and awe campaign that we've seen in the U.S." because it gives CRIA a chance to come back with better evidence. Thursday's decision included several strong statements about the importance of protecting copyright in the online world so that music makers are not "robbed of the fruits of their efforts," suggesting CRIA should return to court when it has met all the necessary criteria. Sexton went a step further saying that with proper evidence, musicians "have a right to have the identity revealed for the purpose of bringing action." However, he cautioned that the courts will need to make sure "privacy rights are invaded in the most minimal way." The judges also refrained from making grand conclusions on copyright laws -- specifically about the legality of downloading or uploading music via file-sharing. At the time of the original ruling, headlines around the world suggested Canada was a haven for pirates because courts couldn't prosecute due to outdated copyright laws. Thursday's ruling strongly stated that the lower court should never have broached the subject of copyright infringement. At the time, Justice Konrad von Finckenstein said that uploading songs to shared folders on a home computer was permissible under law because the songs weren't actively being distributed to others. "Conclusions... should not have been made in the very preliminary stage of this action," Sexton said in Thursday's written decision. "They would require a consideration of the evidence as well as the law applicable to such evidence after it has been properly adduced." The industry interpreted the comment as vindication in its battle to thwart online cheaters. "It makes it harder for people to say 'Canada is a piracy haven so steal whatever you want to.' It ought to be a warning sign for people on peer-to-peer services that you can, and will, be held accountable," said CRIA's Pfohl. How soon remains to be seen as the court system is notoriously slow. As well, government legislation by the Liberals to amend copyright laws in favour of the music industry has been slowly working its way through Parliament. This case has been closely watched by the TV, film and book publishing industries, which have also been negatively affected by the popularity of peer-to-peer sharing systems. © The Canadian Press 2005Le téléchargement illégal de musique préoccupe l'industrie musicale au QuébecMONTREAL (PC) - C'est aujourd'hui (mercredi) qu'a pris fin le grand rendez-vous annuel des professionnels de l'industrie québécoise du disque, du spectacle et de la radio, intitulé "Rencontres 2005". L'événement de deux jours, qui se déroulait au Marché Bonsecours dans le Vieux Montréal, a aussi attiré cette année des producteurs indépendants français, autraliens et anglais. Le droit d'auteur et la problématique entourant le téléchargement illégal de musique a surtout retenu l'attention aujourd'hui. D'ailleurs, les moyens mis de l'avant pour contrer ce phénomène au Québec semble porter fruit. Selon l'ADISQ, l'offre de boîtes-cadeaux à l'achat de CD de musique francophone à la Saint-Valentin a permis d'augmenter les ventes de plus de 30 pour cent durant cette période en 2004 et 2005. La remise d'un album compilation du gala de l'ADISQ 2004, au lendemain de l'événement, à ceux qui achetaient l'album d'un artiste québécois a aussi favorisé l'augmentation des ventes. Malgré le succès remporté par ces actions, la situation demeure très préoccupante pour les gens du milieu. © La Presse Canadienne Wednesday, April 27, 2005
MUSIC - Did Madonna Steal 'Frozen'?
Pop superstar MADONNA is being sued by a Belgian composer, who accuses the singer of stealing the melody from his song "My Life's Getting Nowhere" for her 1998 hit "Frozen." SALVATORE ACQUAVIVA testified Wednesday at Belgian's Mons court that Madonna lifted several bars from his song, which he wrote five years earlier. His lawyers also argued MADONNA may have heard the song when she met SALVATORE's producer. But the glamorous 46-year-old's lawyer FABIENNE BRISON denied the plagiarism accusations, insisting SALVATORE's lawsuit is motivated by a desire for MADONNA's money. SALVATORE explains, "I was in the bath. I was listening to the radio, and thought that's strange, I know that melody. I said it's not possible." But BRISON counters, "Just because there are similarities between two songs it doesn't mean it has been plagiarised. "There are certain artists who hear songs on the radio, see that they are very successful and say to themselves, 'Why shouldn't I try it on?'" Royalties for "Frozen" have been halted until hearings on the case resume next month. Copyright © 2005
MUSIC - Johnny Hallyday quittera Universal sans un sou, ni un master - Jeudi 14 avril 2005 -- Le chanteur avait déjà essuyé le refus de dommages et intérêts pour son départ d'Universal, désormais il sait qu'il ne récupérera pas ses masters. Johnny Hallyday réclamait 60 millions d'euros à Universal en justice. Il ne les a pas eus. Ce mercredi, la cour d'appel a également décidé qu'il n'aurait pas ses bandes mères où se trouvent toutes ses chansons depuis 1961. Hervé Rony, le directeur du Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (Snep), confie au Parisien : "C'est une décision rassurante. Le contraire aurait eu de graves conséquences pour l'industrie du disque. Les producteurs auraient été réticents à investir sur de nouveaux artistes susceptibles ensuite de les quitter avec leurs chansons en toute liberté." Les conseillers du chanteur, dont son beau-père André Boudou, veulent positiver en parlant de liberté retrouvée, mais les finances du chanteur seraient au plus bas. Un Canadien lui réclame même 1,7 million de dollars pour une promesse d'achat non respectée sur une propriété qui lui avait plu. De plus, si le chanteur sera libéré du contrat qui le lie à Universal d'ici 2006 d'après un arrêt de la cour, les professionnels ne le voient pas resigner avec une autre maison de disques. L'un d'entre eux déclare au quotidien : "C'est du domaine de l'utopie. La sagesse serait qu'il y ait un accord à l'amiable entre les deux parties. Pascal Nègre ne demande que cela. De son côté, Johnny doit redescendre sur terre. A part Universal, aucun label n'aura les moyens de travailler avec lui." Rien ne sert d’être l’idole des jeunes devant la justice. La cour d’appel de Paris a débouté hier le chanteur qui réclamait à sa maison de disques la restitution des bandes originales de ses chansons. Cette décision vient donc infirmer le précédent jugement rendu par le tribunal de première instance de Paris qui s'était prononcé en faveur du chanteur. Le 2 août 2004, Universal Music, sa maison de disques depuis 1961, s'était vu obligée de remettre à Johnny Hallyday les matrices de ses chansons, au plus tard le 31 décembre 2005. Des réparations financières en faveur du chanteur avaient même été envisagées à l'époque..
MUSIC - Huge victory for small record label: Cleveland lawsuit beats hell out of record giant Sony Music
CLEVELAND -- Sony Music was ordered to pay $5 million for not putting a Cleveland record company's logo on Meat Loaf's classic Bat Out of Hell rock album. "Today, David beat Goliath," said Cleveland record executive Steve Popovich, who hugged jurors after Friday's decision. A former talent scout who helped Epic Records land such top-selling artists as Michael Jackson, Boston and The Charlie Daniels Band, Popovich created Cleveland International Records in 1977 and signed singer Marvin Lee Aday - who records under the name Meat Loaf. He got Epic, a CBS Records subsidiary, to release Bat Out of Hell, which sold more than 30 million copies and was among the most popular records of all time. Sony, which bought out CBS, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and others at the now-defunct Cleveland company in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over album royalties. The settlement required Sony to place the Cleveland International Records logo on future Meat Loaf albums, but Sony delayed for more than a year. Sony claimed the omission was a mistake that it was later corrected. Sony plans to appeal Friday's decision. © The Canadian Press May 28, 2005Aaliyah Wrongful-Death Suit Tossed: Record Company Can’t Sue Video Producer by Josh Grossberg Jan 7, 2005It's going on four years since Aaliyah died in plane crash, but the quest to apportion blame is still playing out in the courts. The latest legal battle came Thursday as a Manhattan appeals court rejected her record company's bid to be financially compensated for her death. The panel dismissed the wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Blackground Records against the music video production company that arranged the doomed Bahamas charter flight that crashed and killed the 22-year-old chanteuse and eight other passengers. In a 4-0 decision, the justices overturned a ruling Justice Carol Edmead issued in May that declared Aaliyah an "asset," not an "employee," of Blackground, thus opening the door for the company to sue Instinct Productions for damages over her death. "The concept that a person is a property asset of another is, of course, abhorrent to modern-day thinking," the judges wrote. "Courts almost universally reject the antiquated proprietary view of the master/servant relationship." Instead, the appeals court said that only next of kin can sue for wrongful death in New York. At the time of her passing, Aaliyah--whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Houghton--owned a 10 percent stake of Blackground, which was founded by her uncle for the purpose of promoting her. The appellate judges determined that the singer's parents had already been compensated for their loss, having reached an undisclosed settlement in 2003 with Aaliyah's label, Virgin Records, the plane's operator, owners and flight broker. The judges said that whether or not she was an "employee" of her label is "totally irrelevant" to the way state statues cover wrongful deaths. Therefore by the appellate court's interpretation, the negligence suit was "frivolous." Frank Penski, an attorney for Blackground, called the court's decision "disappointing," but he did not immediately know whether his client would appeal. "We were hopeful that the case would go forward," Penski told E! Online Friday. "The suit had been brought because when Aaliyah died, her contracts were lost and those are the assets [the case referred to]. The settlement didn't include the value of those contracts...and the lower court judge agreed." Aaliyah had just wrapped shooting in the Bahamas on the video for "Rock the Boat" and was on her back to Florida when her twin-engine Cessna crashed moments after takeoff on Aug. 25, 2001. An investigation later revealed that the plane had been overloaded by 700 pounds and the pilot had cocaine and alcohol in his system.
MUSIC - Une cour d'appel juge que les rappeurs doivent payer pour utiliser les samples
Sunday, September 12, 2004 Canadian Press -- NASHVILLE (AP) - Une cour d'appel fédérale a jugé mardi que tous les artistes rap devaient payer pour utiliser des courts extraits musicaux d'autres artistes (samples) dans leurs compositions même si ceux-ci sont très courts et non identifiables. Des tribunaux avaient rendu le même jugement en première instance, mais l'usage avait rendu légal l'emprunt une note par-ci, un accord par-là, dès l'instant où ils restaient non indentifiables. Il en va tout autrement avec cette nouvelle décision d'une cour d'appel de Cincinnati (Ohio) qui met fin à cette tolérance. Le tribunal a rappelé que les lois fédérales ayant pour but de mettre un terme à la copie privée illicite d'oeuvres enregistrées, celles-ci s'appliquaient aussi à l'échantillonnage numérique (sampling). "Si vous ne pouvez pas pirater une oeuvre dans sa totalité, pouvez-vous alors prélever, échantillonner une partie de ce tout? Notre réponse est non", a martelé le tribunal. Et d'ajouter: "Payez les droits ou n'échantillonnez pas. Nous n'y voyons aucunement une entrave à la liberté de créer". Les observateurs interrogés sur l'aspect restrictif du jugement rendu, restent perplexes, notamment en matière de rap et de hip hop, grands utilisateurs de "samples". "Cela me semble un peu extrême", a commenté James Van Hook, doyen du Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business de Belmont. "A partir de quoi décidera-t-on qu'un sample est identifiable? Là est tout le problème".
MUSIC - Court rules music 'sampling' may violate anti-piracy law
by JOHN GEROME Associated Press Sept. 13, 2004, 9:04AM -- NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that rap artists should pay for every Lower courts had already ruled that artists must pay when they sample another artists' work. But it has been legal to use musical snippets -- a note here, a chord there -- as long as it wasn't identifiable. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati gets rid of that distinction. The court said federal laws aimed at stopping piracy of recordings applies to digital sampling. "If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you 'lift' or 'sample' something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative," the court said. "Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way." Some observers questioned whether the court's opinion is too restrictive, especially for rap and hip-hop artists who often rhyme over samples of music taken from older recordings. "It seems a little extreme to me," said James Van Hook, dean of Belmont University's Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. "When something is identifiable, that is the key." The case at issue is one of at least 800 lawsuits filed in Nashville over lifting snippets of music from older recordings for new music. The case centers on the NWA song 100 Miles and Runnin, which samples a three-note guitar riff from Get Off Your Ass and Jam by '70s funk-master George Clinton and Funkadelic. In the two-second sample, the guitar pitch has been lowered, and the copied piece was "looped" and extended to 16 beats. The sample appears five times in the new song. NWA's song was included in the 1998 movie I Got the Hook Up, starring Master P and produced by his movie company, No Limit Films. No Limit Films has argued that the sample was not protected by copyright law. Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which claim to own the copyrights for the Funkadelic song, appealed the lower court's summary judgment in favor of No Limit Films. The lower court in 2002 said that the riff in Clinton's song was entitled to copyright protection, but the sampling "did not rise to the level of legally cognizable appropriation." The appeals court disagreed, saying a recording artist who acknowledges sampling may be liable, even when the source of a sample is unrecognizable. Noting that No Limit Films "had not disputed that it digitally sampled a copyrighted sound recording," the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court. Richard Busch, attorney for Westbound Records and Bridgeport Music, said he was pleased with the ruling. Robert Sullivan, attorney for No Limit Films, did not return a phone call to his office.
MUSIC - The lion sues tonight: Family says it lost millions over hit song used in The Lion King
August 25, 2004 Canadian Press - PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- Disney Enterprises Inc. filed an urgent court application Tuesday to prevent its trademarks from being sold off in South Africa if a poor family that says it lost millions in royalties from the hit song The Lion Sleeps Tonight wins its lawsuit against the entertainment giant. Lawyers acting for the family of the late musician Solomon Linda, who penned the original song Mbube in 1939, obtained a court order in July attaching more than 240 trademarks registered here to their $1.6-million-US ($2-million-Cdn) suit in order to establish local jurisdiction. The trademarks, which include well known images such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, could be sold locally to pay Linda's heirs if they win their lawsuit. Lawyers for Disney asked the Pretoria High Court to set aside the attachment order, arguing that the executor of Linda's estate had not been appointed properly, making everything he did on its behalf null and void. They also said the case should have been brought against Walt Disney Pictures and Television, the subsidiary that produced the film The Lion King, the South African Press Association reported. Lawyers for the family rejected Disney's arguments, saying the executor was correctly appointed and that Disney Enterprises Inc. was the right party to sue as it has overall control. Judge Hekkie Daniels reserved judgment in the matter after a three-hour hearing. Disney's Africa manager, Christine Service, declined to comment, saying: "We won't be engaging in public discussions on ongoing legal matters." Linda died penniless in 1962, having sold the rights to his original song to a South African publisher. It went on to generate an estimated $15 million US ($19.5 million Cdn) in royalties after it was adapted by other artists, including the American songwriter George Weiss, whose version is featured in The Lion King. The song has been covered by at least 150 artists, including The Tokens, George Michael, Miriam Makeba and The Spinners. Linda's three surviving daughters and 10 grandchildren, living in poverty in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, have received only a one-time payment of $15,000 US ($19,500 Cdn), according to their lawyers. The action is based on laws in force in Commonwealth countries at the time the song was first recorded. Under its provisions, the rights to a song revert to the composer's heirs 25 years after his death.
MUSIC - Eminem bars Weird Al from making video - May 09, 2003 NEKESA MUMBI MOODY Canadian Press NEW YORK -- Eminem may poke fun at himself in videos, but he doesn't want Weird Al Yankovic doing it. Eminem won't give Yankovic permission to shoot a video for his new song, Couch Potato, a parody of Eminem's Oscar-winning tune Lose Yourself, Yankovic said. "The only reason I could glean was that making a Weird Al music video would detract from his legacy as a serious hip-hop artist," Yankovic said Thursday. "It's very disappointing. This could have been my best video ever." A representative for Eminem did not immediately return a call Friday. Eminem parodies himself and other celebrities in some of his most famous videos, including Without Me, where he depicts himself as a fat Elvis Presley. Artists who have allowed Yankovic to parody their songs and videos over the years include Michael Jackson - whose hits Beat It and I'm Bad became Eat It and I'm Fat - and Madonna, whose Like a Virgin, which became Like a Surgeon. Yankovic said the rapper allowed Yankovic to redo the theme song from the hit movie 8 Mile, but said he would need to hear the final mix before granting the video rights. After receiving the final version of the parody - which pokes fun at television addicts - the rapper's representatives said he would not allow a video. "We started preproduction on (the video) already, because we just assumed that there wouldn't a problem," Yankovic said. Yankovic said Eminem also refused to allow him to release the song as a commercial single. It's the first cut on his 11th album, Poodle Hat, which also parodies songs by Avril Lavigne and rapper Nelly. It's due out May 20 on Way Moby/Volcano Records. Although Yankovic says he's grateful to Eminem for allowing him to parody his song, he's still lamenting what would have been his "most ambitious" video ever - heady words, coming from a man who dressed up like Jackson in a fat suit for the video I'm Fat. "You'll just have to listen to the song and close your eyes and imagine what might have been," chuckled Yankovic. © Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press
MUSIC - Quebec firm sued by Zappas: Rock legend's tune used in appliance ad by ELIZABETH THOMPSON, Gazette, February 27, 2003 -- The family of iconoclastic rock legend Frank Zappa is suing a small Quebec City-based furniture retailer for copyright violation. The suit alleges that one of Zappa's signature songs is being used to sell furniture and appliances, thus damaging the deceased U.S. musician's honour and reputation. "It is totally contrary to everything he believed in and would have stood for," Owen Sloane, the Los Angeles-based lawyer for the Zappa family, said in an interview. "Especially with that particular piece of music, which he considered one of his signature works." Daniel O'Brien, lawyer for Ameublements Tanguay, said the company had no idea when it commissioned the television ad in 1995 that the background music was Zappa's song Watermelon in Easter Hay. Nor did his client know that copyright permission to use the song had not been sought, O'Brien said. "It's a misunderstanding and a combination of circumstances." The case, filed in Canada's Federal Court in 1998, is awaiting a starting date for a 71/2-day trial in Quebec City. It pits the Zappa Family Trust, widow Adelaide Gail Zappa and her children - Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa - against Ameublements Tanguay, a small furniture and appliance retailer with nine stores in eastern Quebec. Maurice Tanguay, founder of the chain, was awarded the Order of Canada in 2002 for his philanthropic work on behalf of sick and handicapped children. Frank Zappa, who died in 1993 of prostate cancer, was an irreverent and often outrageous rock star whose raunchy satire and social commentary attracted fans around the world. Among his favourite targets were sexual mores, the music industry and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's wife, Tipper, who led a campaign to restrict access to records with controversial lyrics. The seeds of the court dispute were sown in 1995, when Ameublements Tanguay turned to Quebec City-based Karma Productions to produce a new television commercial. The ad, which pictured home appliances being delivered, used Watermelon in Easter Hay in the background while a narrator extolled the company's virtues. The song is from Zappa's 1979 album Joe's Garage Act II and III. In the song, "Joe" joins the "Church of Appliantology." When the commercial aired throughout eastern Quebec in the summer of 1995, Gaspé resident Steve Le Brasseur recognized the music and wrote to the Zappa family. "He was outraged that the song would be used in a commercial like this and (asked) how can this come about," Sloane said. "That's what alerted us to it." In their statement of claim, the Zappa family says Watermelon in Easter Hay is one of the musician's three signature tunes, has never been released as a single and has never been licensed for use in commercials. "The defendants or its officers' servants or agents, to the prejudice of the honour and reputation of the late Frank Zappa, edited, distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified the composition and used it in association with a product without the consent of the plaintiff. ... As a result of the defendants' actions, the plaintiffs have suffered damages and the defendant has made a profit." The court action does not set a dollar figure on the Zappa family's claim, and neither side would say yesterday whether money has been discussed during attempts to settle the case. Sloane said the Zappa family feels deeply about the issue of intellectual property rights. For the family, the case is more about curbing copyright infringement than about money, he said. "How do you assess the damages on a case that is a signature work that he would never have licensed in the first place for a use like this, which he would have found abominable?" Sloane asked. "To use it as a background for a commercial for people delivering furniture would have been anathema to him." Zappa's widow feels strongly enough about the case that she came to Ottawa twice last year to attend pre-trial and dispute-resolution conferences. In its defence filed with the court, Ameublements Tanguay sought to explain why it had no idea the music was copyrighted or even that it was Zappa's: "The music used did not consist of a tune or a melody generally known by the public and easily identifiable as being a composition of Frank Zappa. ... "The defendant is a respectable and respected company, never having been the object of controversy, consequently any association that anyone could have made cannot bring prejudice to the plaintiffs."
MUSIC - Artists lose bid to cap record contracts
Monday, August 19, 2002 Canadian Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Benefit concerts and star-filled promenades to Capitol hearing rooms have proved a failing cause for California's recording artists, who have lost their year-long bid to cap their record contracts at seven years. On the verge of an assembly committee hearing last week where their idea lacked the votes to pass, Senator Kevin Murray, a former music agent, withdrew the bill, promising to try again next year. "After months of negotiations on the seven-year-issue, the RIAA and the recording artists were at an impasse on several major points," Don Henley, Eagles drummer and singer, said in a statement. Henley and others who testified for the artists' campaign, including Courtney Love, Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks, said standard multi-album contracts bind singers for much of their careers to the same label, greatly limiting their musical and financial options. Record industry officials maintain they must hold their successful acts to long-term recording contracts that help cover losses from the majority of acts that fail. The Recording Industry Association of America, which led the fight against the bill, declined comment.© Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press
MUSIC - Dylan, Joel, Taylor Sue MP3.com by BUSINESS & LEGAL NEWS, Oct. 14, 2002 -- Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and James Taylor filed a lawsuit against Vivendi Universal's MP3-dot-com music Web site for allegedly distributing their songs without authorization, according to sources familiar with the suit. The musicians' suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, claims MP3.com digitally copied their tracks from commercial CDs and then offered the music files to users.
BOOKS - Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR)
The AAR's objectives include keeping agents informed about conditions in publishing, the theater, the motion picture and television industries, and related fields; encouraging cooperation among literary organizations; and assisting agents in representing their author-clients' interests.
The AAR's objectives include keeping agents informed about conditions in publishing, the theater, the motion picture and television industries, and related fields; encouraging cooperation among literary organizations; and assisting agents in representing their author-clients' interests.
TV - ABC TV Is Sued Over Plan for Show by JACQUES STEINBERG Published: August 11, 2005 - The creators of a television show, first broadcast in Minneapolis, that pits would-be inventors against each other for prizes, filed suit yesterday against ABC television, as well as a producer of "American Idol" and Simon Cowell, the outspoken "Idol" judge, for preparing a similar show with the same title: "Million Dollar Idea." The producers and hosts of the Minnesota show, Jean M. Golden and Todd P. Walker, who previously worked as "product talent scouts" for the shopping channel QVC, said that ABC's announcement on July 13 that it had ordered nine episodes of a reality show with the working title "The Million Dollar Idea" constituted a "patent rip-off" of a show that they first broadcast on an independent station in Minnesota in 2003. Earlier this year, they said, the show was sold in syndication to more than 100 other stations nationally. In their suit, filed in federal court in California, the producers said they had registered the name of their show as a trademark and copyrighted elements of the production. They are seeking to enjoin ABC from putting its show on the air. The producers said that they had pitched a national version of "Million Dollar Idea" in March 2004 to Andrea Wong, executive vice president for alternative programming at ABC, in a telephone conversation and a letter. They said that they had also sent copies of their "pitch materials" to the Creative Artists Agency, a talent management firm. The news release that ABC issued last month announcing "Million Dollar Idea" included a quotation from Ms. Wong, who oversees all reality programming at the network, and also noted that "the show was packaged by C.A.A." The network said that the executive producers would include Mr. Cowell as well as FremantleMedia North America, which produces "Idol" on Fox, a rival network. A spokeswoman for ABC, Annie Fort, said the network had not formally received the suit and had no comment. C.A.A., which represents Mr. Cowell, said it had no comment. Representatives for Fremantle did not return calls. In the news release last month, ABC said that its show would "undertake a national search for America's greatest entrepreneur with the best business idea or new product." The grand prize would be "$1 million worth of business support, including cash, top-notch entrepreneurial counsel and physical resources to the winner, allowing him/her to turn a dream into reality." In its Minnesota incarnation, the show lays out a similar competition, albeit for a grand prize of $50,000. In its pitch to ABC, the producers said they had proposed raising that prize to $1 million. Like the Minnesota-based show - which is set at the Mall of America - the ABC program would rely on a panel of three judges. In the creative world, lawsuits in which one party claims to have had an idea poached by another are hardly unusual. Some of the most colorful have concerned reality television. Last year, for example, NBC filed suit against Fox in a California court claiming that a Fox show about boxing ("The Next Great Champ") was too similar to an NBC show about boxing ("The Contender"). An attempt by NBC to keep the Fox show off the air was dismissed, on the grounds that blocking its broadcast would constitute a violation of the First Amendment. The producers of "Wife Swap," a reality show on ABC, also filed suit last year against Fox over a show called "Trading Spouses," which, the "Wife Swap" producers contended, was a "blatant and wholesale copycat." While many of those claims have been dismissed, some remain unresolved. "Plaintiffs have had a difficult time keeping what they would call 'copycat' reality TV shows off the air," said Joseph Gioconda, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in New York who specializes in intellectual property law and is not a party to the suit filed yesterday. "The issue, and I think this is something counterintuitive to people, is that you can't protect an idea. It is the particular expression of that idea that is protected by copyright. The court looks to details, as opposed to generalities." To that end, the creators of the Minnesota show appeared to have gone a step beyond other such shows by seeking, in advance, to legally protect its name and specific elements of its show, Mr. Gioconda said. More problematic, perhaps, could be the producers' effort to persuade a judge that they had an understanding with Ms. Wong and C.A.A. - which is not named as a defendant in the suit - that its pitch was confidential. While the producers said that they sent Ms. Wong a confidentiality agreement, they acknowledged that she did not sign it. While it is common in Hollywood to send such an agreement without getting it signed, Mr. Gioconda said: "It definitely makes these cases more difficult for the plaintiff. You need to prove there was a contract, even though ABC didn't sign anything."
BOOKS - Parisians get books via vending machine by Jenny Barchfield Associated Press August 19, 2005 PARIS -- Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly installed book vending machines. "We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day." Stocked with 25 of Maxi-Livres best-selling titles, the machines cover the gamut of literary genres and tastes. Classics like The Odyssey by Homer and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland share the limited shelf space with such practical must-haves as 100 Delicious Couscous and Verb Conjugations. "Our biggest vending machine sellers are The Wok Cookbook and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal _ The Flowers of Evil _ also is "very popular." Regardless of whether they fall into the category of high culture or low, all books cost a modest $2.45. Installed in four busy Metro stops and a chic street corner in central Paris, Maxi-Livre's distributors were designed to bypass the characteristic vending-machine-drop, which can be punishing for books. "We knew that French bibliophiles would be horrified to see their books falling into a trough like candy or soda," Chambon said. "So we installed a mechanical arm that grabs the book and delivers it safely." Books are but the latest offering in France's ever-expanding vending machine market, which is responding to off-hour demand for everything from toilet paper to carnations.
BOOKS - Cocky with copyright: Google's plans to digitise books
Financial Times, August 17 2005 -- Google's plans to digitise some 15m books from the collections of leading libraries in the US and UK is groundbreaking in its attempt to democratise access to those works. To the dismay of some publishers, it is also pioneering in its interpretation of copyright law. Last week, Google announced that it would stop scanning copyrighted books until November, a pause apparently intended to allow copyright holders to prepare lists of titles they do not want scanned. According to the Association of American Publishers, however, this procedure shifts the responsibility for preventing infringement to the copyright owner rather than the user, thereby turning an established copyright principle on its head. A stand-off looks likely, but ought to be avoided. The library project is an extension of the existing Google Print programme. Users clicking on books-related results would view images of the relevant scanned pages with their search terms highlighted. The scheme would rely on the "fair use" of excerpts, which is generally permitted by courts when involving, say, quotations in a book review. The AAP dismisses this approach as disingenuous, since Google will have to copy all of the works in their entirety and maintain them in its database. The dispute taps into wider issues pertaining to copyright laws developed in a pre-digital age. It pits Google's mission to aggregate information and make it searchable online against publishers' determination to preserve the right incentives for content creation, which include the ability to make money from it. While the internet has stimulated some types of content creation, for example via personal blogs, or contributions to collaborative projects like Wikipedia, other types of content need to be protected if they are to continue being developed. Google would therefore be wrong to assume that it can push ahead with its project as a matter of right. The company has been criticised for this approach in the past, notably with respect to its Google Video and Google News services. This time around, it should aim to proceed by agreement. At the same time, publishers must recognise that seeking permission book-by-book, or negotiating tailor-made contracts with each publisher would vastly delay an inherently laborious project. They should treat Google's digital library plans as a promotional opportunity rather than a threat, and be prepared to work with simple, standardised agreements. This would reflect the project's potential to boost sales of previously published titles that would otherwise languish in a warehouse. This rationale lies behind the existing Google Print programme, and a similar venture by Amazon, to which at least a dozen major publishers have signed up. Given the library project's win-win potential, a prolonged stand-off or court case jeopardising the entire venture would be inexcusable.
Financial Times, August 17 2005 -- Google's plans to digitise some 15m books from the collections of leading libraries in the US and UK is groundbreaking in its attempt to democratise access to those works. To the dismay of some publishers, it is also pioneering in its interpretation of copyright law. Last week, Google announced that it would stop scanning copyrighted books until November, a pause apparently intended to allow copyright holders to prepare lists of titles they do not want scanned. According to the Association of American Publishers, however, this procedure shifts the responsibility for preventing infringement to the copyright owner rather than the user, thereby turning an established copyright principle on its head. A stand-off looks likely, but ought to be avoided. The library project is an extension of the existing Google Print programme. Users clicking on books-related results would view images of the relevant scanned pages with their search terms highlighted. The scheme would rely on the "fair use" of excerpts, which is generally permitted by courts when involving, say, quotations in a book review. The AAP dismisses this approach as disingenuous, since Google will have to copy all of the works in their entirety and maintain them in its database. The dispute taps into wider issues pertaining to copyright laws developed in a pre-digital age. It pits Google's mission to aggregate information and make it searchable online against publishers' determination to preserve the right incentives for content creation, which include the ability to make money from it. While the internet has stimulated some types of content creation, for example via personal blogs, or contributions to collaborative projects like Wikipedia, other types of content need to be protected if they are to continue being developed. Google would therefore be wrong to assume that it can push ahead with its project as a matter of right. The company has been criticised for this approach in the past, notably with respect to its Google Video and Google News services. This time around, it should aim to proceed by agreement. At the same time, publishers must recognise that seeking permission book-by-book, or negotiating tailor-made contracts with each publisher would vastly delay an inherently laborious project. They should treat Google's digital library plans as a promotional opportunity rather than a threat, and be prepared to work with simple, standardised agreements. This would reflect the project's potential to boost sales of previously published titles that would otherwise languish in a warehouse. This rationale lies behind the existing Google Print programme, and a similar venture by Amazon, to which at least a dozen major publishers have signed up. Given the library project's win-win potential, a prolonged stand-off or court case jeopardising the entire venture would be inexcusable.
BOOKS - Judge Rules for 'Da Vinci' Author
NY Times by EDWARD WYATT, August 6, 2005 -- A federal judge has ruled that Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code" did not copy two earlier works by Lewis Perdue, who has loudly accused Mr. Brown of copyright infringement for much of the last two years. Judge George B. Daniels of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote in the decision, dated Thursday and released yesterday, that "there is no substantial similarity" between "The Da Vinci Code" and Mr. Perdue's books "Daughter of God" and "The Da Vinci Legacy." Both of those books "involve the unprotectable idea of a mystery thriller set against a religious backdrop," Judge Daniels said, but ideas and general literary themes are not protected by copyright. "Daughter of God" is more action-packed, "with several gunfights and violent deaths," the judge said, while "The Da Vinci Code" is "an intellectual, complex treasure hunt" that features clues and puzzles more than "any physical adventure." A spokeswoman for Doubleday, Mr. Brown's publisher, said the company was pleased with the decision. A lawyer representing Mr. Perdue did not immediately return a phone call yesterday seeking comment on the decision. Judge finds 'Da Vinci Code' best-seller does not violate copyrights of another author by LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer, August 5, 2005 NEW YORK -- "The Da Vinci Code," a best selling thriller, does not infringe the copyrights of a book published in 2000 by another author, a judge has ruled. In a ruling dated Thursday, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels said New Hampshire author Dan Brown's story exploring codes hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork is not substantially similar to "Daughter of God," by author Lewis Perdue. He said both novels tell a story based on religious and historical people, places and events but the factual details in each are quite different. He said Brown's book "is simply a different story" and fails to support Perdue's infringement claim. For instance, he noted, there are no substantial similarities between any characters in the books and the heroes and heroines are different. "Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectible ideas," the judge said as he tossed out Perdue's claims that there were similarities to "Daughter of God." He also ruled out violations of copyrights in "The Da Vinci Legacy." Brown and Random House Inc. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan last year seeking a declaratory judgment that his work does not infringe on Perdue's. In a countersuit, Perdue asked the judge to rule that there was infringement and award $150 million in damages. He included among defendants various parties involved in the production of a motion picture version of Brown's work. Perdue had alleged that Brown copied the basic premise of "Daughter of God," including notions that history is controlled by victors, not losers, and the importance of the Roman Emperor Constantine in requiring a transition from a female to a male dominated religion, the judge said. He said Perdue also argued that common themes in the books included the role of the female, the church's recasting of the great goddess as evil, the use of historical references and the fact that both novels incorporate the use of a gold key and conduct a similar discussion regarding communion. "All of these similarities, however, are unprotectible ideas, historical facts and general themes that do not represent any original elements of Perdue's work," the judge said. "Perdue has not alleged that his unique expression of these ideas and themes were copied. Ideas and general literary themes themselves are unprotectible under the copyright law," Daniels said. He noted that both novels discuss the Catholic Church, something that is "expected from a thriller with religious themes." The judge drew differences between the books. "Although both novels at issue are mystery thrillers, `Daughter of God' is more action-packed, with several gunfights and violent deaths," he said. He said "Daughter of God" also includes a perilous journey through an Austrian salt mine and sex scenes not in "The Da Vinci Code." "`The Da Vinci Code,' on the other hand, is an intellectual, complex treasure hunt, focusing more on the codes, number sequences, cryptexes and hidden messages left behind as clues than on any physical adventure," the judge wrote. Bruce Lederman, a lawyer for Perdue, declined to comment. Elizabeth McNamara, a lawyer for Brown, said she and her client were pleased with the decision. "As the court found, `The Da Vinci Code' is simply a different story than that told in Mr. Perdue's book, `Daughter of God,"' she said.
BOOKS - Quills Award will allow public to vote Rowling, Dylan among the nominees
by Hillel Italie Associated Press Thursday, August 04, 2005 NEW YORK -- J.K. Rowling, Bob Dylan and Stephen King are among the nominees for the inaugural Quills Awards, a glitzy literary affair for which the general public will cast the ballots. Organized by Reed Business Information, which publishes Variety, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, and NBC television, the Quills Awards consist of 19 categories, from sports to debut fiction, with five finalists for each. Winners will be announced at an Oct. 11 ceremony hosted by NBC anchor Brian Williams, to be aired Oct. 22. "This is the first consumer-driven awards program that acknowledges the power and importance of the written word and celebrates literacy," Jay Ireland, president of NBC Universal Television Stations, said Thursday in a statement. From Aug. 15 to Sept. 15, the public can vote online at www.quillsvote.com. The prize will be promoted at bookstores and on NBC Universal stations. Some of the proceeds from the ceremony, for which admission will range from $1,000 US for a single ticket to $25,000 for a sponsorship table, will be donated to the Quills Literacy Foundation, launched earlier this year with funding from Reed. The Quills themselves carry no cash prize, although the publishing industry hopes attention given to the awards will help increase sales. The nominees range from Rowling's multimillion-selling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a finalist for best children's narrative for middle graders, to a new translation of the ancient epic Gilgamesh, nominated in poetry. Voters can choose a "book of the year" by selecting a finalist from any category. Dylan was cited for biography/memoir for Chronicles, Volume One, while King and Stewart O'Nan were nominated for best sports book for Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a chronicle of the Boston Red Sox in 2004, when the baseball team broke a decades-long jinx and won the World Series. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America is among the fiction nominees, which also include Marilynne Robinson and her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead. David McCullough is a history/current events/politics finalist for 1776. Other categories include mystery, humour and science fiction/fantasy. The finalists were chosen by a panel of thousands of booksellers and librarians and were required to meet one of several possible criteria that included an appearance on the bestseller lists of Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble or Book Sense, a list based on sales at independent stores.
BOOKS - Chinese pirates work magic on 'Potter' by Associated Press Sunday, July 31, 2005 BEIJING -- It's missing some paragraphs and gets a couple of facts wrong, but the wizards of China's thriving piracy industry have worked their magic again and produced a rush translation of the latest Harry Potter book. An unauthorized Chinese version of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was on sale Sunday in Beijing, just two weeks after the book appeared in English and almost three months ahead of the planned October launch of the official Chinese-language edition. Impatient Chinese fans also have begun posting their own translations online. One reader was so upset about the ending he wrote his own and posted it on a university Web site. The fantasy series by J.K. Rowling is wildly popular in China, where the hero is known as "Ha-li Bo-te" and authorized translations of five earlier books have sold millions of copies. In 2002, an unknown Chinese author produced an entire fake adventure, "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon." Chinese leaders, under pressure from the United States and the country's other trading partners, have promised repeatedly to stamp out the country's rampant piracy of goods ranging from books and movies to drugs and designer clothes. But such fakes are still widely available, and foreign companies say they are losing billions of dollars in potential sales. A Chinese-character softcover version of the newest Harry Potter installment was being sold off a tarp in an underpass in downtown Beijing for 20 yuan, or $2.50, while the official English-language hardcover books sell in Beijing for the equivalent of $21. The saleswoman would not say where she got the book but said she had been selling copies since Friday. The fake book looked identical to the first five tales put out by People's Literature Publishing House, the mainland firm that purchased the rights to publish Harry Potter in Chinese. However, several crucial pages of action are missing and there are some critical mistranslations, such as using the word "immortal" at one point when the original says "mortal." The earlier authorized translations were produced by a team of veteran children's book translators. Pirated versions of those books and the movie spin-offs are widely available in China. The People's Literature Publishing House plans to launch the official Chinese version of the new book Oct. 15, the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported Sunday. In 2003, the publisher tried to beat pirates to market by rushing out its own translation of Rowling's previous book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," 10 days before its scheduled release. At that time, the company offered a reward for reporting piracy, but it was not clear whether it caught any copycats. A spokesman for Rowling's London agent, Christopher Little, said two weeks ago the agent had successfully taken action against Chinese pirates but declined to give details. China is regarded as the world's biggest source of illegally copied goods ranging from Hollywood movies and Microsoft Corp. software to Ralph Lauren designer shirts and Callaway golf clubs. stimates of potential lost sales to legitimate producers worldwide range from $16 billion to as much as $50 billion a year. China's own producers of music, software and other goods say they also suffer huge losses. In response to complaints from it trading partners that fines were too light to deter pirates, China has begun imposing jail time for violations. The government said in June that during an eight-month crackdown it had arrested some 2,600 people and destroyed 63 million compact discs and other counterfeit goods estimated to be worth $105 million. Earlier this month, Chinese officials promised to further step up anti-piracy efforts during a visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. They said they would file more criminal charges in copyright cases, crack down on Chinese exports of pirated products and focus special attention on movie piracy. evertheless, counterfeit goods are still widely available in Chinese shops. It is estimated that 70 percent of pirated products coming into the United States originate in China. Since the English-language release of the latest Harry Potter book, Chinese fans have begun sharing their own translations for free on Web sites, including those run by Beijing's elite Tsinghua and Peking universities. On the Tsinghua site, a fan writing under the name Woodchuckle was so upset by Rowling's ending that he wrote and posted his own. A notice posted on the Tsinghua site from its administrator told users that several postings were deleted because they contained illegal electronic versions of the book. The notice said the university had received a warning from a law firm but did not give any other details. Fans also use the chat rooms to talk about their reactions to the new plot twists, opinions on the characters or what they felt they learned from the story. "As soon as I saw the book in the bookstore, I bought it and rushed home to read it," wrote one fan writing on the Tsinghua site. "I didn't finish it until the middle of the night and then I cried like crazy." Chinese and English paperback copies of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' bought from the streets cost RMB20 (US$2.40) and RMB30 ($3.60) respectively in Beijing. The official Chinese version of the popular book is expected only in October this year. Harry's reach is global -- but only English (book translations)by Hillel Italie Associated Press 27 July 2005, NEW YORK -- Check out the front window of Manhattan's Libreria Lectorum, one of the largest Spanish-language bookstores in the United States, and you'll see a witch's hat and a handful of copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- in English. While millions have already finished the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, fans hoping to read it in other languages will have to wait. Translating a 672-page book is a long process, made longer by the strict security imposed on Half-Blood Prince by Rowling and her publishers. Translators didn't get to see the book until it officially came out on July 16. "The Spanish publisher (Salamandra Editorial, based in Barcelona) is just getting started and told us that the translation will probably be ready in the spring of 2006," says Marjorie Samper, product manager of Lectorum Publications, a Spanish-language book distributor that oversees the Lectorum store and is in turn owned by Scholastic Inc., Rowling's U.S. publisher. The Potter books are enormously popular throughout the world and have been translated into dozens of languages, with German and Japanese editions doing especially well. But Neil Blair, a representative from Rowling's literary agency, said that the first translations of any kind for Half-Blood Prince -- German and Mandarin so far -- aren't expected until the fall. Lectorum officials say customers are frequently calling and visiting the store with requests for the Spanish version of Half-Blood Prince. Samper said she expects a comparable level of interest to the previous Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had a first printing of more than 50,000, a number as high as for such popular Spanish-language authors as Isabel Allende and Jorge Ramos. "A lot of customers are asking about it. I have a waiting list of 80-90 people," says Miguel Salvat, marketing director for the Miami-based Libreria Universal. "Obviously, people would be happier if we had the book, but they don't get upset. They understand there's nothing we can do about it." With the Hispanic population topping 35 million in the United States, the book industry is well aware of the Spanish-language market, by far the biggest non-English market in the country. Random House Inc., Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster are among the publishers with Spanish-language imprints; the superstore chains Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group have expanded their Spanish offerings. "We've consistently seen double-digit growth for the last number of years," says Randi Sonenshein, Border's category manager for books in Spanish. She said demand was high both for books originally published in Spanish, such as the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and for books in translation, such as Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's works. But getting translations into stores is often frustrating -- sometimes hurried, sometimes slow. A number of factors can interfere: delays in getting the manuscript to translators; the intricacies of translation, especially for literary fiction; and a reluctance even to commit to a Spanish edition until the English work has proved successful. "With Harry Potter, you don't have to decide whether the book will succeed in Spanish, but for some books, you wonder how big the market will be," says Milena Alberti, director of Spanish-language publishing at Vintage Espanol, a Random House imprint. "We just acquired (Carlos Eire's) Waiting for Snow in Havana and we'll publish it in the fall. It won a National Book Award (in 2003) and was kind of a surprise success. That's something we couldn't have known before the book came out." Hot editor Karp gets Warner imprintHillel Italie, Associated Press Thursday, July 21, 2005 NEW YORK -- Jonathan Karp, the editor of Seabiscuit, The Orchid Thief and many other bestsellers at Random House Inc., will run his own imprint at Warner Books. Karp, who left Random House in June, has been named publisher and editor-in-chief of Warner Twelve, which will release 12 books a year. "The idea of being both the publisher and editor of the books I work on is something I've aspired to my entire career," Karp said Thursday. "And I love the idea of only publishing 12 books a year. It's so hard to get people to pay attention to books and the best things a publisher can do is lavish its own attention." The first Warner Twelve book is expected to come out in spring 2007. The 41-year-old Karp was in his mid-20s when he joined Random House as an editorial assistant and soon displayed a knack for spotting bestsellers, especially narrative non-fiction. His many authors included Laura Hillenbrand, best known for Seabiscuit; Susan Orlean, who wrote The Orchid Thief; Senator John McCain; Donald Trump; and Po Bronson. Karp seemed to enjoy publicizing books as much as acquiring them, and once helped organize a U.S.-wide contest to find an author to write a sequel to the late Mario Puzo's Godfather novels. Mark Winegardner's The Godfather Returns was a bestseller last year. Karp believes that Warner, publisher of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Jon Stewart's America (The Book), shares his aggressive approach. "