Dead Musicians Write No Songs... But They Sure Can Sign Petitions Protecting Copyright Extension

from the funny-how-that-works dept

Fri, Dec 8th 2006 7:48pm — Mike Masnick

Remember yesterday when we were talking about the petition a bunch of musicians and record industry types supposedly signed in the UK in favor of extending copyrights on recordings beyond 50 years? Larry Lessig has noticed that at least a few of the "signatures" happen to come from musicians who are quite dead already, which might make you question the legitimacy of the other signatures as well. As Lessig notes, however, perhaps he was wrong in pointing out that extending copyright after the music has been made has no incentive on songs created 50 years ago. After all, if dead men can sign petitions from the grave, perhaps they can write new 50-year-old songs.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

31 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

SimplyGimp, 8 Dec 2006 @ 8:27pm

Again?
Doesn't this happen with just about every petition? At least here in the states it seems to. Hell, we have whole towns of dead people who still vote in elections, why not let them write music and sign petitions as well?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
hooya, 8 Dec 2006 @ 8:52pm

Heh. that's nothin'...
you should check out cook county (Chicago, IL) elections. *All* the deceased rise to the occasion. pun intended.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Dec 2006 @ 2:01am

The Simpsons
Anybody else remember an episode of The Simpsons with something like this happening - and Lisa's dead cat's name was on the petition, and she went psycho?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Barry Ritholtz, 9 Dec 2006 @ 3:30am

The British Phonographic Industry
I am aghast at this.

Next thing, you will be telling us is the RIAA are a bunch of liars also . .
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Dec 2006 @ 5:44am

fuck the riaa
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:55am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:55am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:55am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:56am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:56am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CoolCliftop, 9 Dec 2006 @ 6:56am

Tales from the Crypt
We need to give this story some credence after all dead writers have their issues too. It seems that after you die, the entrance to heaven for writers and musicians is based solely on sales and copyright extensions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dt king, 9 Dec 2006 @ 10:26am

Erasing old songs...
Maybe they're decomposing music?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ned, 9 Dec 2006 @ 12:24pm

not dead yet
maybe they are not quite dead yet. They might be nearly dead or mostly dead, but not fully dead.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
August West, 9 Dec 2006 @ 3:02pm

Dead Signatures
Did Elvis sign it? Last I heard he was at the Burger King in Decatur Georgia, but that was almost 20 years ago. He might be in the U.K. by now, you never know.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Roger, 9 Dec 2006 @ 3:12pm

How can you say that dead musicians write no songs
Look at Tupac...he has released much more music in his death then he ever did while he was alive. Clearly you all are mistaken.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 9 Dec 2006 @ 4:05pm

Without copy protection,
You can enjoy SQNY's non-exploding batteries, and drink Caca Cala.

http://img.epochtimes.com/i6/612060821481459.jpg

http://img.epochtimes.com/i6/6120608215 01459.jpg
[ link to this | view in thread ]
shel israel, 9 Dec 2006 @ 4:37pm

dead musicians signing copyright petition
Were any of these dead musicians from Chicago? That would explain it. Dead guys vote all the time over there, even twice.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Monty Python, 9 Dec 2006 @ 5:44pm

The Final Ripoff!
...the decomposing composers,
there's less of them every year,
you can still hear Beethoven,
but there's not much of him left to hear...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Daniel, 9 Dec 2006 @ 7:39pm

LOL, you good folks crack me up! Took me a minute CoolCliftop!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
brwyatt, 10 Dec 2006 @ 5:52am

Suing dead people, suing people without computers (or internet), now dead people signing petition in favor of those jerks... I wouldn't mind all this bull if they weren't jerks about it... I partly understand why they are mad at downloading music and copyright laws... but the way they are handling it is really bad... instead of trying to think about how they can either use this to their advantage and work with the fans, they decided to use it to get as much money as they can from everyone. Not only that, but the record companies take most of the money from CDs and sale of online downloads and the artist gets very little, however the artists real money comes from tours anyway... the RIAA is upset at THEIR OWN profits, any complaint about artist's profits is somewhat BS...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rico J. Halo, 10 Dec 2006 @ 8:37am

Oh my gosh!
You dont mean that possibly anyone in the RIAA would lie and cheat for more money do you? Im shocked....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Dec 2006 @ 3:47pm

"i Wrote this song a long time ago , way back in 94"
-dave chappelle
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Elvis, 10 Dec 2006 @ 3:58pm

This just rights the wrongs
The current copyright just isn't long enough. It needs to be longer so i can continue to remain retired in .

EP
[ link to this | view in thread ]
AZ, 10 Dec 2006 @ 8:33pm

spelling error
You made a spelling error.

"After all, if dead mean" Dead man.
Hope you see this and correct it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gus, 10 Dec 2006 @ 10:40pm

Re: spelling error
You made a life error in correcting someone's spelling online. I hope you see that and correct your life (aka, end it). Thanks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wyndle, 11 Dec 2006 @ 7:12am

Re: Re: spelling error
You made an ethics error in correcting someone's life error online. I hope you see that and correct your ethics (aka, be more subtle for better humor). Thanks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BrianK, 11 Dec 2006 @ 8:47am

Elvis is not dead
According to Men in Black Elvis isn't dead, he just went home...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mitch mcguire, 11 Dec 2006 @ 7:59pm

Dead Musicians signing on
Er...perhaps you have heard of Estates? One of the biggest earners is Elvis and he be dead. So whomever runs the estate of said musicians is legally allowed to sign that musicians name to an add, if he/she feels it is justified and will help the estate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
fred, 10 May 2008 @ 5:43am

DVD soft
I have seen this information and lots more at http://loadingvault.com
they have some programms for design and some videos! very useful!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Popular, 20 Nov 2008 @ 6:53am

Hi I want to recommend you very useful rapidshare search http://4rapidsearch.com You can find there a lot of new movies, games and music. Enjoy it!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Valus, 20 Nov 2008 @ 6:54am

Hi I want to recommend you very useful download files search http://suche-project.eu You can find there a lot of new movies, games and music. Enjoy it!
[ link to this | view in thread ]