Re: collective copyright in musical works

From: R W Nomad <rwnomad[_at_]juno.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 18:15:23 PST

On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, artlawyr[_at_]scn.org (Julia E. Harmatz) writes:
>
> Should the members break down their creative contribution to
> percentages (I added 70%, you did 15% and the drummer contributed
> 15%)? Does music publishing, and the ability to reap the awards of
> same demand such a breakdown of credit for each song?

     I don't know that publishing "demands" any particular form, although a publisher logically will want to know that it has whatever authority it's bargained for. I've seen three kinds of breakdown:

     (1)     Person who writes the song owns
               it; people who contribute after the
               fact do not because copyright is
               vested in the original author.

     (2)     People collectively write a song and
               own the rights pro rata. This could
               be modified to provide specific 
               percentages, but that's a recipe for 
               guaranteed conflict somewhere, 
               sometime. IMO, of course.

     (3)     Person or people who write songs 
               do so under an agreement that assigns
               all rights to the band as a separate entity.
               Ongoing rights to profit from royalties are
               linked to participation in the band as an
               entity.

     Given the eccentricities of the music business, it seems only

prudent to set up a conservative method of allocation that leaves as little as possible for the likely future squabbles ...

Bob

Robert Dibert
<rwnomad[_at_]juno.com> Received on Thu Oct 10 1996 - 01:08:59 GMT