Re: Fw: Israel Music Today: Piracy

[Klezcorner <Klezcorner...>]

In a message dated 8/4/99 7:27:26 AM, wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com writes:

<< 
I just saw the following on a Barton Brothers cassette from House of
Menorah:

ANY DUPLICATION IS A VIOLATION OF HALACHA &
COPYRIGHT LAWS
 >>

I had privately answered Bob's posting, but he suggested that I post a reply 
for the List.

In regard to The Barton Brothers on House of Menorah.
House of Menorah has been out of business for years.  There is not a single 
recording on the market containing Barton Brothers material that is "kosher"- 
where royalties are being paid to Eddie Baron.  .As I posted once before to 
the list Eddie Barton and I have become very good friends, and he has not 
seen a penny for any of his recordings in decades neither as the artist or 
composer.

There is a "frum" music company that is notorious for taking older product 
(still within copyright) and releasing it without permission, not paying the 
artist, and putting this warning on the shell casing : 

ANY DUPLICATION IS A VIOLATION OF HALACHA &
COPYRIGHT LAWS

I plan to release a "Best of The Barton Brothers" Cd soon, and have arranged 
a royalty with Eddie Barton. He has supplied me with some great photos and 
stories which I had planned to use in a detailed booklet. However, because of 
all the Illegal copies of The Barton product, I will just release a simple 
cover with no booklet. It's a real shame, but there's no point investing in a 
project when you know that an inferior copy is siphoning of your profit, 
especially in such a limited market.

Personally, I don't know-though I have my suspicions as to who is 
manufacturing this tape.  At one time, Eddie had made a licensing arrangement 
with House of Menorah, however, due to nonperformance (payment??) he canceled 
his arrangement with the company and all the elements were to be returned to 
him.  None were.
When house of Menorah closed down, they "sold" off their "rights' to what 
they claimed they owned-whether they owned them or not...-this is also very 
common in the Jewish Music business-especially if they believe the artists 
are no longer around.

By the way, the entire cost of manufacturing the 'unauthorized" cassette of 
The Barton Brothers is probably no more than forty cents-which is 
considerably less than the royalty I am paying.

I want to make clear that I am not accusing any particular company of this 
practice since I have not seen this cassette, however this has been going on 
for a long time and is still happening.
The fact that you see this:
ANY DUPLICATION IS A VIOLATION OF HALACHA & COPYRIGHT LAWS
does not "a legitimate record make"

This practice gives a black eye to not only the Jewish music business, but to 
the innocents in the Religious community as well.
Simon
Hatikvah

 

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