The Null Device
Transcript of
Courtney
Love's righteously scathing speech on recording industry skulduggery: (Salon)
When you look at the legal line on a CD, it says copyright 1976 Atlantic
Records or copyright 1996 RCA Records. When you look at a book, though,
it'll say something like copyright 1999 Susan Faludi, or David Foster Wallace.
Authors own their books and license them to publishers. When the contract runs
out, writers gets their books back. But record companies own our copyrights
forever.
Writing and recording "Hey Jude" is now the same thing as writing an English
textbook, writing standardized tests, translating a novel from one language
to another or making a map. These are the types of things addressed in the
"work for hire" act. And writing a standardized test is a work for hire.
Not making a record.
Toni Braxton also declared bankruptcy in 1998. She sold $188 million worth
of CDs, but she was broke because of a terrible recording contract that paid
her less than 35 cents per album. Bankruptcy can be an artist's only defense
against a truly horrible deal and the RIAA wants to take it away.
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