Good point Nigel...

Could we have a moment of silence in respect for this tragedy?

Nope. It would probably cost too much.

- Brian

I think he originally thought that by part-crediting Cage he was sort of protecting himself... can you think of a more spectacular example of shooting yourself in the foot? ouch!

Yeah I bet he thought that by doing that he'd avoid and legal action, but I'm sure he learned a lesson on this one.. He should have just said nothing about it at all.. You know that makes me wonder.. If this is applicable over there and it's copyrighted, what if someone here in the US decides to write a song and has a one minute pause in it, but doesn't credit cage for it..? Are they going to get sued for it??? One would think the copy right issue can be applied just the same here in the US.... It's not really the pause that's copy righted but the concept of a performance that constitutes silence within the composition.. So basically everyone is in violation of that copy right.. Hell just by composing a song on our arrangers and pressing the "break" button is a good example.. If we mass market the composition (say worldwide) that copyright issue technically could apply because of the legal loop hole based on the "concept" Also keep in mind the catch word here is "concept" You can't actually copyright silence, but the concept yes... Again it's a crappy way to sue someone, but hey some people do anything for money and there is always a attorny that's willing to take it on....

Squeak

new small print on the back of cds: "the gaps between tracks are NOT inspired by John Cage"

Also I work for a lawfirm and I'm currently a criminal justice major in college so I ran off a copy of this and showed it to the attorneys here.. They laghed their butts off on this one... The lawfirm I work for is one of the largest in the state and most of the attorneys here said that if it went to court they could have most likely gotten the issued dismissed, but the guy did screw up by crediting cage....

Squeak

Man my wheels are still turning on this.. Yeah it's a bullcrap suit, but looking at it from a legal prosepective I have to say it's brilliant..... To actually copyright the "concept" itself is just mind blowing, and just one hell of a great idea. By doing this of course you'll piss off the entire musical community, but damn that's amazing. Technically this family if they so chose could sue the pants off of everyone and what would end up happening is bands and musicians would start paying royalties to this family just because the "concept" itself has been copyrighted... I wonder if Cage actually thought of this when he his producer or manager copyrighted it....

Squeak

" "

copyright
D.Ladkin

Interesting comment:

"Also I work for a lawfirm and I'm currently a criminal justice major in college so I ran off a copy of this and showed it to the attorneys here.. They laghed their butts off on this one... The lawfirm I work for is one of the largest in the state and most of the attorneys here said that if it went to court they could have most likely gotten the issued dismissed, but the guy did screw up by crediting cage.... "

Regrettably after the American lady successfully sued MacDs for damages because she burnt herself with the coffee that spilt on her as she drove off anything seems possible so long as the lawyers think they can make it stick and the company on the receiving end has sufficient funds to pay up.

Personally I think Batt has had the best publicity for his new album "classical graffiti" that he could have hoped for, for his £100,000! Until this nobody had really heard of "The Planets", yet after this case I noticed the shelves were almost empty of the recordings!! Brilliant!!! Well done Batt!!!

Simon


------------------
________________________
Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
________________________