Re: Who Are Gateway? (a response)

[Brian <bmcgow01@wild.vill.edu>]

I was bored so I figured that I would let you all know some of the nuances about
songs, ownership and the law.

First off, the owner of the song, controls who can use the song in any
advertisement.  They also control the royalty.  Of course most songs are owned by
the studios, and they often have contracts that fix the royalties at set values.
But the owner can charge whatever they want, the song is THEIR property.  It's
the same with books and even your car.  You own the car, and can sell it, or rent
it, for any amount you deam worthy.  When it comes to rock songs, in my
understanding, there are realtively very few people who own their own work.  Pete
Townshend, Mick Jagger and Frank Zappa and large exceptions to this general rule
(that of course, unless Townshend gave his rights away).  I am aware of a case
where Microsoft wanted to use one of Jagger's songs in a commercial.  He didn't
want this to happen so he set the royalty price at $12 million, to his
astonishment, Microsoft paid him, and got the limited rights.  I forget the name
of the rights, but they are identicle to printed word rights.  When authors sell
articles to magazines they sell the one-time rights, which means the two parties
negociate a price and the magazine can print the article once, the author retain
all rights over future publications.

Second, if I were Townshend's child, I would be really pissed if he gave his
rights away.  They are literally worth millions.  They are literally the gift
that keeps on giving.

That's all I have,

-McGoo
"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."