14 min
#29 Kookaburra - The copyright Problem The Sound Age - Music industry Podcast
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- Music Commentary
What happens when a TV trivia show mentions the similarity of a children's song and one of Australia's biggest hits 27 years after it's release. The owners of the copyright who never even realised the similarity go on a rampage to extract whatever money they can from the artists. The result, $4.5 million in damages and court costs and the downward spiral and eventual death of the musician at the centre of the court case. It highlights a glaring problem with Copyright law. If the motives and timeframe for copyright infringement is not considered in the case, then as more songs are sold to private investors, labels and publishers through NFT's and other means, there will be an increase in petty little copyright claims. After all these private investors are removed from the art of making music, they are in the art of making money.
What happens when a TV trivia show mentions the similarity of a children's song and one of Australia's biggest hits 27 years after it's release. The owners of the copyright who never even realised the similarity go on a rampage to extract whatever money they can from the artists. The result, $4.5 million in damages and court costs and the downward spiral and eventual death of the musician at the centre of the court case. It highlights a glaring problem with Copyright law. If the motives and timeframe for copyright infringement is not considered in the case, then as more songs are sold to private investors, labels and publishers through NFT's and other means, there will be an increase in petty little copyright claims. After all these private investors are removed from the art of making music, they are in the art of making money.
14 min