The Bittersweet reality of copyright protection
We have been thinking a great deal about copyright at Doxmart recently. We have a strong stance on copyright and document protection. If you feel the same as we do about the importance of respecting copyright you can use Doxmart’s Respe©t for Copyright logo and buy document protection.
Recently, a judge ruled in favour of Harry Potter author JK Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a fan and website operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia – The Harry Potter Lexicon. Rowling and Warner Bros were awarded $US6,750 damages. The judge blocked permanently the publication of the Lexicon saying that it would ‘cause her (Rowling) irreparable harm as a writer’. This latter point (and clearly not the damages!) was the crux of the matter for Rowling.
This made me think about British band The Verve (now on a comeback although last year they were panned at Nottingham Arena). Bittersweet Symphony is one of my favourite songs of all times and is still played regularly on the radio (not quite as much as ‘Had a Bad Day’ or ‘Chasing Cars’ but still I hear it a lot). And the galling thing for The Verve is that they do not receive a penny in royalties for it. No, that money goes to The Rolling Stones (or I think one of the members of the Stones but can’t remember who). All because The Verve sampled an orchestration on “Bittersweet Symphony” from The Rolling Stone’s “The Last Time”.
According to web site Sampling Law.com: “Before the release of the album, The Verve negotiated a licensing agreement with The Rolling Stones to use the sample — at least the composition rights to the sample. In 1997, The Verve’s album “Urban Hymns” peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Charts. What ensued was a bitter (and not sweet) legal battle as the Rolling Stones argued that The Verve had violated the previous licensing agreement by using too much of the sample in their song. The Verve argued that The Rolling Stones got greedy when the song became successful. “The last thing I ever wanted was for my music to be used in a commercial. I’m still sick about it”, The Verve’s lead singer Richard Ashcroft said in a recent interview after the Stones’ manager let Nike and Vauxhall use it for ads. The real salt in the wound is that when “Bittersweet Symphony” was nominated for a Grammy, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were named the nominees and not The Verve. “It could’ve been worse,” Ashcroft continued. “If we hadn’t fought, ‘Symphony’ could’ve ended up on a cheeseburger ad and never have been taken seriously again.”
Bittersweet indeed.
