Post Script On Edwyn Collins: Power Of The Press Gets His Music On MySpace For Free

from the no-thanks-to-warner-music dept

A few weeks back, we were one of the first publications to highlight how singer Edwyn Collins was unable to put his own hit song on MySpace for free download (as he wanted to do) because Warner Music claimed copyright over it -- even though it had no such copyright. Despite quite an effort by Collins' manager/wife, Grace Maxwell, nothing was changing. However, the story started to spread, including making it into some major media properties, such as the BBC and The Guardian... and whaddaya know, suddenly everything gets fixed. Mesanna writes in to let us know of an update post from Maxwell, where she points out that the power of the press seemed to finally accomplish what simple reasoning with both MySpace and Warner Music could not:
However, whaddaya know? After 30 odd fruitless emails, A Girl Like You is now available in full on the myspace player! So, todays lesson is simple:

THE MOST POWERFUL DEPARTMENT IN ANY ORGANISATION IS THE PRESS OFFICE.
The whole sad world runs scared of bad publicity, especially from a righteous source like Edwyn Collins.
While Maxwell says it's not worth the ridiculous effort it would take to sue Warner Music or any other major label claiming copyright over Collins' songs, she's more than willing to help out in other cases against them:
Warner Music Group has no connection with Edwyn whatsoever and yet they are still corporately arrogant enough to steal Edwyn's copyright and God knows what else from others. A guy from myspace advised me to treat their copyright department with kid gloves if I wanted a result. It didn't work. If the shoe was on the other foot they'd have been down on us like a ton of bricks. The next time a major tries to take ANYONE to court for copyright infringment, I'm volunteering my services as a witness for the defense.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: edwyn collins, music
Companies: myspace, warner music group


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Richard Corsale, 15 Oct 2009 @ 1:39pm

    you know.. I'll bet you he could sue the **** out of them, and they would settle in a quantum leap.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 1:52pm

    What does this have to do with the balloon boy?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Designerfx (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 1:55pm

    this is extremely newsworthy

    and yet I bet it will get absolutely 0 MSM coverage, since Murdoch owns a ton of it anyway right?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 2:29pm

    Well well well, this has to be the first article ever where Mike praises the corporate news.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 2:30pm

      Re:

      Only because they helped win an argument against record labels, hah!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 2:41pm

    Research is an amazing thing, and it changes the whole story. Mike, you should learn about that Google thing, it is really helpful to understand things.

    There is a song called "With A Girl Like You", which was a number 1 single for a couple of weeks in the UK in 1966, released on Fontana Records. Fontana Records went dormant, and the assets (including rights) were purchased by PolyGram. PolyGram in turn was sold to Seagrams, merged with MCA records, and became (tada) Universal Entertainment.

    It's like the 6 degrees of why something happens.

    The rest of the story writes itself.

    Google is your friend.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:14pm

      Re:

      The rest of the story writes itself.

      Only if you have a vivid imagination and like to make crap up.
      Or you work for a record company. Yeah, then I guess it "writes itself".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:53pm

      Re:


      The rest of the story writes itself.

      Google is your friend.


      Heh, as others pointed out, that's a different song by a different artist, so not quite sure what point you think you've proved, other than that Google is your friend only if you know how to use it properly.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:57pm

        Re: Re:

        You can lead a horse to water, but until you can get it to do the backstroke, you don't have anything.

        Since you guys can't seem to connect the dots, let's try this: Is there potential that Universal thought that this guys song was in fact the song they had the rights to (with a strikingly similar name)?

        Look, just past your nose... you will see it.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Steven (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 4:19pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          So your position is:

          It's OK that Universal falsely claimed copyright on a song, prevented the true copyright owner from exercising his rights, and then persisted to maintain it's wrong position because the title of the song was close to one that it has in it's back catalog.

          Did I get that about right? And in addition to this it appears (although I haven't confirmed it myself) that Universal continues to illegally distribute, and profit from, the CD.

          Of course this is all OK because big recording industry companies should have complete ownership of all music (and all uses of music) regardless of where it came from, and the rest of us should just shut the hell up and fork over the cash.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          DocMenach (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 4:53pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          Since you guys can't seem to connect the dots, let's try this: Is there potential that Universal thought that this guys song was in fact the song they had the rights to (with a strikingly similar name)?

          So you are saying that it's okay that they then continued to push their case that they had the rights(when they didn't) and refused to even have a dialog with Edwyn. In what way is that oaky?

          Your continued and obvious shilling constantly astounds me.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 5:18pm

          Re: Re: Re:


          Since you guys can't seem to connect the dots, let's try this: Is there potential that Universal thought that this guys song was in fact the song they had the rights to (with a strikingly similar name)?


          Except it wasn't Universal Music making the claim. It was Warner. Totally different company. Totally different song.

          I admire your tenacity, but at some point, you might as well just admit you were wrong.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:12pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re:

            I will admit the error, I thought this one was also Universal, your favorite whipping boys.

            Ignore.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:19pm

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

              I will admit the error, I thought this one was also Universal, your favorite whipping boys.

              Thanks. Though, to clarify, I actually think Universal is the least bad of the four major record labels. They have some really sharp people working in their eLabs. I very rarely talk about Universal Music, so not sure why you believe they're one of my "favorite whipping boys."

              You may be confusing them with NBC Universal -- which, again, is a totally different company.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:08pm

    What research won't tell you (apparently) is that it's a completely different song, with a different title, by a different performer. For that you have to be like psychic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous, 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:14pm

    Good on you

    Good on you, Grace. I fully support your efforts to stick it to them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mr Big Content, 15 Oct 2009 @ 3:18pm

    Unfair To Warner

    To be fair, Warner spends tons of money on its legal department, PR staff and so on. The idea that one little tin-pot so-called “artist” that no one has heard of should be able to prevail against a major institution based on so-called “evidence” and “facts”—well, where’s the fairness in that? It’s like admitting that all that legal and PR investment by Warner doesn’t amount to a hill’o’beans. Keep that up, and where is the incentive for major corporations to continue investing in their legal and PR resources?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ..., 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:01pm

    I heard that they were selling this song, have they stopped?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Halo3 Freak, 16 Oct 2009 @ 5:56am

    Halo3

    Not to change the subject, but does anyone know what game variant is used for double xp weekend?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.