[Fmpro] From the Job Poster We've been Discussing

[Pete]

Mark,

It seems pretty clear according to your ad and his
discussion, Michael Benghiat is planning to take 50%
credit and money for music he didn't write. OK, he's
not taking 100% credit. What do you wanna call that?
Half-Ghost writing? Is there really a difference? It's
still cuesheet fraud.

"We generally do 50/50 splits on jobs we contract to
other composers" - Michael Benghiat

"Established composer seeking additional composers to
work with to create theme and music for prime time
television special... We split writers performance
royalties; production company retains publishing." -
Original Mark Northam / Michael Benghiat Ad

If you want to talk about false alligations, you want
to back up your claims that I have "pals" at ASCAP?
Who are my "pals"? Are you a journalist? Back up your
false alligations with facts.

As I see it, this issue of you running ads for
Employers who "split writers performance royalties"
has absolutely nothing to do with ASCAP and everything
to do with Mark Northam and Michael Benghiat.

P e t e
S u r d o v a l

--- Mark Northam <mark at gmdgroup.com> wrote:

> Pete, you're way off on this one.
> 
> The JobWire was in no way a ghostwriter ad.
> Ghostwritinig is writing without
> cue sheet credit, as I'm sure you know or ought to.
> You are accusing
> composer Michael Benghiat of what many consider
> completely unethical
> behavior, and you need to retract that statement,
> now. I don't know whether
> you misunderstood the ad or what, but you really
> should be more careful with
> your words and obviously didn't read the ad very
> carefully or you never
> would have written what you did.
> 
> Please re-read the ad and you'll find there is no
> mention of ghosting
> (writing without cue sheet credit). If there was, we
> wouldn't have run the
> ad- we turn away more than a few of those types of
> ads in fact. Please don't
> tell your pals at ASCAP now that "Hey, Mark Northam
> is running ghostwriter
> ads!" - as much as they'd love to read that (thanks
> to you completely
> misstating Benghiat's ad), it's false and wrong.
> 
> Speaking of personal responsibility, it's now time
> for that retraction,
> Pete. Is there nothing you won't do to obfuscate or
> distract people from the
> real issue at hand here involving hundreds of
> millions of dollars annually -
> the outrageous treatment of instrumental composers
> by the PROs?
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mark N.
> 
> 
> On 11/30/06 10:24 PM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Mark,
> > 
> > You really lost me here. You tried to start an
> ethics
> > committee because you think this practice is
> > unethical. You complain that, although it's
> officially
> > against ASCAP rules, they aren't doing enough to
> > prevent it. But, you un-apologetically run a
> > Ghost-Writer-Wanted ad for a guy who is looking to
> > commit Cue Sheet Fraud?
> > 
> > You can't blame EVERYTHING on ASCAP. At some point
> > your own personal responsibility comes into the
> > picture.
> > 
> > P e t e
> > S u r d o v a l
> 
> ---------------------------------
> Mark Northam - Publisher
> Film Music Magazine
> The Professional Voice of Music for Film & TV
> http://www.filmmusicmag.com
> 1-800-774-3700 x702 / (310) 645-9000 x702
> 
> 
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