What if your song was posted by another person ?

[stephengilbert]

Thanks in advance for any help, I would like to know what I need to do if one of my songs has been submitted by someone else as theirs ?? I am a recent Taxi member and until now really did not think about this possibility ! I am also an ASCAP member and all the songs are copyrighted.I know another person who is on Taxi who has access to my MP3s, I was told that person submitted some of my originals listing himself as the author, any help will be greatly appreciated, I do know this person and could ask them to please remove my songs, but how do I ensure they actually removed them ??

[sgs4u]

Call the Taxi office ASAP, I've also sent you a PM

[davewalton]

Quote:I know another person who is on Taxi who has access to my MP3s, I was told that person submitted some of my originals listing himself as the author, any help will be greatly appreciated, I do know this person and could ask them to please remove my songs, but how do I ensure they actually removed them ?? Contact Taxi immediately to verify If true, Taxi will surely cancel their membership. In addition you would want to consider having an attorney send a letter demanding an immediate cease and desist, outlining the potential consequences of their actions should they choose to continue to submit elsewhere.Good luck,Dave

[stephengilbert]

Thanks to everyone for the prompt replies, I have contacted Taxi and the other party and we are going to work it out... Frankly I'm surprised this has not happened more, I did a search on "stolen", "plagiarized", etc.. on this forum and got no hits..... Unfortunately I have to spend a lot of time hunting down these things, for instance, we(Azureth) have a CD with international distribution that keeps popping up in record stores that we never distribute to, doing that alone is turning out to be a fulltime job, it seems every week I Google, I find new(many legit stores mind you !) places selling our CD !!What happens to the A&R person who might get the same song twice from different authors, would it get to them before Taxi catches the duplicate submission ? again grateful thanks for your insights !!

[arkjack]

This is possibly the next phase in illegal downloading... like it or not... I have a client that found someone selling his demo on itunes... I'm now suspecting that this may be starting to happen more, where someone can acquire your material and publish it as their own..... the instance of my client was an outfit in the far east... what a freakin' nightmare that could be.... I think I'll send a note to my NARAS friends to alert them this may need attention... its a side effect of illegal downloading.... and possibly an international problem.... for those that know the Parreto statistics, its not far fetched to say there could be millions of unscrupulous plagerizers out there.....Then I probably ought to go to law school and become an entertainment lawyer... ArkJack

[stephengilbert]

Quote:This is possibly the next phase in illegal downloading... like it or not... I have a client that found someone selling his demo on itunes... I'm now suspecting that this may be starting to happen more, where someone can acquire your material and publish it as their own..... the instance of my client was an outfit in the far east... what a freakin' nightmare that could be.... I think I'll send a note to my NARAS friends to alert them this may need attention... its a side effect of illegal downloading.... and possibly an international problem.... for those that know the Parreto statistics, its not far fetched to say there could be millions of unscrupulous plagerizers out there.....Then I probably ought to go to law school and become an entertainment lawyer... ArkJackI agree with you, all this is a result of copying & recording technology available to the masses. Another thing we have problems with is that now the new scam is to pose as a "net" radio station, put up a good looking, convincing web site, and solicit CDs and info from bands, so not only do they get free CDs this way, many of them in some countries just turn around and duplicate the CD and sell it themselves. There is a lot being written about these issues getting worse, I think some form of DRM(digital rights management) licensing MUST come to pass, otherwise it's the "wild west" out there, and just like you mentioned, this will be something happening in the millions....

[arkjack]

I just realized that my roland machines have software built in so that I can digital protect the finished wave nd audio files from being copyable..... I was thinking before "what the heck do I need to do that for?" this thread is quite a wake up call.... now I wonder if the digital protect in my roland is going to be secure enough....Very interesting thread.....ArkJack

[jchitty]

I think this is one problem I have with posting mp3s of my songs. I've never been quite comfortable with that. I'm thinking about posting an mp3 next week (finally getting my nerve up and I wanted to learn how to do it) because I'd like some thoughts on it. I am a newbie here, and the regulars here seem honest enough, so I don't worry about them. However, any non-member or unscrupulous person can gain access to this board and they could steal anyone's song. That is one concern I've had since I've joined this board, and after reading this thread, I'm becoming apprehensive again. I'm just a bit skittish.

[davewalton]

Quote:I think this is one problem I have with posting mp3s of my songs. I've never been quite comfortable with that. I'm thinking about posting an mp3 next week (finally getting my nerve up and I wanted to learn how to do it) because I'd like some thoughts on it. I am a newbie here, and the regulars here seem honest enough, so I don't worry about them. However, any non-member or unscrupulous person can gain access to this board and they could steal anyone's song. That is one concern I've had since I've joined this board, and after reading this thread, I'm becoming apprehensive again. I'm just a bit skittish. Well, the Internet is here to stay and marketing yourself and your songs pretty much require an Internet presence. I was originally going to say that some folks like Matto do just fine without an Internet presence and it's true he doesn't have his own site, but the libraries he's in have his music available online so even a "non-Internet" success story is indirectly tied to the Internet.For myself, I have about a dozen tracks or so that can be accessed by anyone who goes to my site. The rest of my tracks and video snippets with my music are only available in a private area. I send email submissions (outside of Taxi) using special links to these.In order to develop my music over the last couple of years I spent a lot of time listening to music from other composer/musician websites. Of course I never stole anything but what I'm saying is that there are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of web sites where people post their music. So while I remain aware that someone might choose to download an MP3 of mine and call it their own, I'm also aware that I probably have a better chance of getting hit by a bus. Besides, my website and the way I market myself have generated WAY more in a positive way. If someone downloads and uses my music illegally I'll probably never know. But, since everything is copyrighted (through the copyright office) if I would ever hear stolen music used in film and television I'd have a pretty good case against them.Someone could say that by sending a CD as a demo that you're potentially giving someone access to your music. Obviously at some point we have to balance business with caution and not let one rule the other. Having said all that I completely understand anyone's point of view where they don't want to post their music anywhere.Dave

[stephengilbert]

Quote:Well, the Internet is here to stay and marketing yourself and your songs pretty much require an Internet presence. I was originally going to say that some folks like Matto do just fine without an Internet presence and it's true he doesn't have his own site, but the libraries he's in have his music available online so even a "non-Internet" success story is indirectly tied to the Internet.For myself, I have about a dozen tracks or so that can be accessed by anyone who goes to my site. The rest of my tracks and video snippets with my music are only available in a private area. I send email submissions (outside of Taxi) using special links to these.In order to develop my music over the last couple of years I spent a lot of time listening to music from other composer/musician websites. Of course I never stole anything but what I'm saying is that there are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of web sites where people post their music. So while I remain aware that someone might choose to download an MP3 and call it their own, I'm also aware that I probably have a better chance of getting hit by a bus. Besides, my website and the way I market myself have generated WAY more in a positive way. If someone downloads and uses my music for something I'll probably never know. But, since everything is copyrighted (through the copyright office) if I would ever hear my music used in film and television I'd have a pretty good case against them.Someone could say that by sending a CD as a demo that you're potentially giving someone access to your music. Obviously at some point we have to balance business with caution and not let one rule the other. Well said Dave, it is truly a balancing act, on one hand you want to use the Internet as a marketing tool, but on the other, you sure don't want people deciding they liked your song so much they will submit it as theirs !!Here is someone(David Kusek) who has raised many important questions about music distribution in the internet age, although I disagree with his position that copyrights should dissappear (Imagine the Beatles not able to prove they wrote their songs!), he does raise very valid points: (The podcast of his entire book is available free off iTunes)His site:http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/Description:MP3 Format will Take the Lead in 2007All signs are pointing to the eventual dominance of the MP3 format for paid digital music in the near future. Last fall there were lots of signals that 2007 would be the year where the labels and publishers would be forced to face a future where MP3 become the latest legitimate format for digital music, and where Digital Rights Management begins to lose it's grip on the main action in paid digital downloads. The major labels began to experiment with MP3 format releases with some high-profile acts, including Nora Jones, Jessica Simpson and others. This shift in strategy has allowed the labels to play with variable price points, something they have been wanting to do with iTunes and other platforms.Companies are lining up to capitalize on this inevitability including Amazon, MySpace, Yahoo, eMusic, Limewire and many others. Eliot Van Buskirk from Wired News sums up the situation pretty well with his seven reasons why MP3 is the future of the music industry:1. The labels don't have a choice2. Apple might be forced into interoperability3. Thomson has endorsed selling watermarked MP3s4. Amazon is rumored to start selling MP3s by April5. Sony: "DRMs are going to become less important"6. People love AllofMP3.com7. MP3 has future options