> thanks for your in depth describition of the situation.that was
> really helpful
Yup, it was very comprehensive.
I do in fact have the correct clauses to be able to grant permissions:
and of course LF is correct: in theory RKO should be paying royalties
for every download, even if it's free (or paying a subscription),
but no one's going to enforce that, since it would be a manifestly
nasty and un-community-like thing to do, and would close the site.
<<<
even though the composer and/or publishing company owns or controls the song writing they do not usually own the actual sound "recording", so to speak (this would be the actual sound being played by a C64). This is owned by the software company who bought the song and paid the composer for its inclusion in a game.
>>>
Actually most of the freelancers insist they only granted licences to use
the code on a specific platform, so they (and so I) still own the
phonographic rights. Martin and Ben have also asserted their claim to
this too, primarily on the basis that no one else has a better claim
backed up by paperwork
<<<
unless the composer has a written agreement that stipulates that he still retains the reproduction rights to his work - very very seldom
>>>
Transfer of any kind of rights have to be in writing, so it's actually up
to the software company to prove ownership of anything. Basically
no one signed contracts back then, which is good for the authors.
It would be a lot different for Amiga music.
Chris
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