[Phil L.]

Rhonda wrote:

> It surprises me that he would be able to use that clip then....I'm not 
> sure if Aussie copyright rules are the same, but as it works here in 
> Canada, to use copyrighted material one has to obtain permission from 
> the performing rights organization that represents artists & 
> performers...it's SOCAN here...they (Limbaugh in this case) then 
> license the track or portion thereof from the performing rights agency 
> via whoever holds the rights to the song (artist? record company? 
> publishing company?  depends on the contract) and then royalties are 
> paid out depending upon frequency of usage, how much of the song is 
> used, how it's used, etc.
>
the point here is that it's vary rarely the performers dealing directly 
with the artist/performer/end user thats trying to get the rights.... 
another recent example of this is the 'Soundtrack to War' and 
'Fahrenheit 9/11' story....

The maker of Soundtrack is apparently not overly impressed with the way 
that his footage was used in Michael Moores film.. but what can he do? 
he assigned Moore the right to use his footage... at least on the 
surface... do we know at what stage the Moore film was at when these 
rights were assigned? probably not even close to being finished, and the 
makers of Soundtrack would not have known what the end usage of their 
footage was to be....

as for the Rush / P&TP issue... chances are that the host station 
contacted the Australian Recording Industry Association (or similar), 
who probably contacted the Oils management company, who would have 
contacted the Oils themselves (or not) and somewhere along the way it's 
quite likely the finer points got lost, and this just got rubber stamped 
because it didnt stand out as anything special... Oils songs are used as 
backing material all the time, and I'm sure not all of those involved a 
direct call from the musical director to Peter and the lads to get 
permission, I beleive these days it's more a case of keeping track of 
what sound you use, and then telling ARIA after the fact, and sorting 
out royalties at that time....

> Even if the Oils don't hold the publishing rights to the song (and I 
> have no idea whether they do or not), they can prohibit its use on 
> moral grounds from being used by someone or for something they are 
> totally against.  I'm guessing they're probably not even aware of its 
> current use in Rush Limbaugh's ad, and would be totally pissed if they 
> found out.
>
ok.. yes, thats what i was trying to say :)

> -Rhonda



-- 
Phil L.
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