RE:Music / Publishing - Advertising

["Nigel Morton" <nigel@adastey.demon.co.uk>]

FYI - the owners of a song's copyright are not necessarilly the composers.
If the write has doen a publishing deal with a publishing house then it
them, the publishers who now own the copyright in the song and not the
composer.  In other words the writers, often, do not have a say in how their
compositions are exploited.  The classic example is that the person who owns
the publsihing copyright to the vast majority of Lennon . McCartney is now
Michael Jackson; in turn the person who owns the vast majority of Buddy
Holly compositions is Paul McCartney!!  In these cases it is the publisher
who decides what get's used for advertising and what isn't used.  It is more
common nowadays for writers / composers to have written into agreements with
publishers that their compositions cannot be used for certian products -
tobacco; alcohol; arms trading etc.  However, for many composers and
compositions from the 50's upto the mid-80's a lot of titles are now out of
the control of the original composer and the title can be exploited in
whatever way the publisher sees fit.  Also, a sound recording has a
copyright held in it by the record label and not the performer.  Again, it
is the owner of that copyright who can decide is the original recording can
be used for advertising etc, etc.