Karaoke Forums

Taylor Swift just never ceases to amaze me. Not only did she produce a karaoke version of her latest album, but she is aggressively participating in a copyright infringement lawsuit strictly to enforce the law

http://www.tmz.com/2009/11/19/taylor-sw ... operation/

So are you AMAZED for her or against her

Reading between the lines. it seems she sent an "Agent" to run a "Sting".

Now I'm sure she started the whole deal.. since she has nothing else to do..

I'm not saying she has no claim.. Pirates need to be hung from the yardarm..

clarification:

I am totally amazed by her:

composing skills

singing skills

business acumen

maturity

composure under fire (i.e. Kanye)

shall I go on?

EDIT: actually, i think that i should. I am amazed at how much thought she has given to karaoke and where it fits into her career and that she wants to "protect" her karaoke endeavors

The girl's management has principles for sure - she may not even know about it. Nevertheless, good to have an artist on our side of this law, I'd say.

Couldn't tell if this was a BMI fee thing or a copied karaoke thing. Sounds like a BMI fee thing.

BMI collects fees for public performances of an artist's material and does not need Taylor Swift's involvement, as her representative, to strive to collect said fees. And BMI or ASCAP or the like do not get involved, to my understanding, with copyright infringement of a composer's material!

As to copyright suits for music, no copyright suit can be initiated without the composer being a plaintiff. And in many cases the karaoke manufacturer's have been restrained in bringing copyright suits against pirates because of a lack of enthusiasm on the part of composers' to pursue such matters (not enough financial incentive to do so for the composers)

Actually, you sort of have it backwards. BMI/ASCAP originally had nothing to do with the artist performing the song. They have always represented the songwriters. That's why the name is American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

They now collect royalties for both performers and composers, and a true singer-songwriter like Taylor Swift collects it all. I have a friend in the industry who bought rights for all of his songs from the composers years ago. It cost quite a bit then but turned out to be a goldmine when two of the songs got picked up for large TV commercial ad campaigns.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

thanks for the update and correction. bottom line, though, is that for a copyright suit to proceed Taylor Swift must be a plaintiff (assuming she kept the rights to her songs). Correct?

It's actually ASCAP bringing suit on her behalf, but essentially correct.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Isn't she one of the few out there who has a disk with her origional tracks used for karaoke. If so she could be suing simultaneously for performing rights and also for pirated music.

So it could be a simultaneous BMI style (failure to pay performing rights) and Soundchoice type (pirated copy) case.

Here in Los Angeles, the codes enforcement group checks on all performance rights payments prior to issuing the business license..

This includes TV, Music, Karaoke, dancing, bands, etc..

And they check as the license is renewed..

A sports bar here, (Boardwalk11) installed 20 DirecTV receivers when they started up, and no TV until the code guy signed the permit papers.

The club had a stage, so these permits were required too..

Mileage in your city may vary..

That may help BMI, ASCAP and the like but it does nothing to prevent Copyright Infringement!

It looks like strictly a BMI - club not paying - type of suit, and they just happened to see that the karaoke they had is probably all downloaded/pre-loaded hard drive.
Since it's all speculation as the article really doesn't state, but that's how it looks to me.

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Due process.. Where is it when we need it?

If they did that here, it sure would solve a lot of problems. So in LA code enforcement does recognize that BMI and ASCAP are legit operations!

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