From the U.K. Musicians Union website:
"Whenever members have disputes over unpaid fees, cancellations, injury compensation, intellectual property rights, or need help with contracts for recording, songwriting, touring or merchandising, the MU’s legal team is there to help — at no extra cost."
"Composers, songwriters and producers can call upon the MU to protect their copyright and property rights. The Union continually updates its rights’ service for musicians in recording and publishing, including online developments."
Just wondering if anyone has expierience with their MU (or other agency)with regard to copyright protection.
Seems to me that IF they free the musician from the legal costs and burden, and actually do implement a reasonable degree of protection (even the major labels are not able to stop all copyright theft of their artists material) then the MU fees of £177 per year (in the UK) is a bargain..
But the U.K.M.U. is the only agency I know of providing (or claiming to provide) this sort of service - presumably there are other MU's or agencies in other countries which do (or claim to do) similar actions?
I suppose I am trying to move away from discussion about the "rights" or "wrongs" and go in a direction which may be helpful and practical - Whatever we say here about copyright, whatever ideas we come up with or judgments we make, its not going to get us anywhere practical - IF any of the discussion here was to trickle into the collective conscious, it will still take decades before anything we come up with has ny possibility of having any effect... So perhaps it is more constructive to examine what agencies / mechanisms are in place now.
Fred.
"Artists probably have it better with copyrights, as the things can last virtually forever, whereas patents run out fairly quickly." - Dewster
Independent inventors have it FAR worse - Just to get a patent covering Europe and the USA will cost you >£100,000 up front (this is if you are a U.K. national - You need to pay fees for every state in the USA and must employ an American patent agent in each state! ) - This is before you can even safely show your invention to prospective clients.. Sure, technically you can be protected by a NDA - but when a client like Logitech or Microsoft claims they were working on the same idea before you showed them your invention, your NDA aint worth the toilet paper its written on.
When it comes to Monopoly money, I am a billionare! - Unfortunately, Monopoly money isnt recognised by the Ferengi - they want Latinum!
