[Fmpro] Retitling -- Fraud

[Gael MacGregor]

Josh,

Sorry to be harsh in the terminology here, but...

You can call it whatever you want, but renaming an existing composition for the purpose of redefining who owns the publishing on the composition is a fraudulent act. You're just in collusion with the publisher(s) of the re-titled composition(s), which means that you've agreed to perpetrate the fraud together. You are lying to potential licensees, calling an existing composition by another title -- information they then put onto cue sheets, thereby compounding the fraud (albeit unwittingly), this time to your PRO.

While it may have an aka (or two) by which it is also known, a composition is a unique creation, copywritten upon its creation, and (hopefully) registered by you with the copyright office by that title. To call it anything else, with the purpose of redistributing the publishing pie is unethical. This is not an assignment of copyright, but choosing to call a composition by another name (or several names) for monetary gain (probably more so for whoever is absconding with all or part of your publishing).

"Love is Blue" cannot ethically be retitled "Blue is Love" or "Blue Love" or "Love Me Blue" just because one wishes to have the SINGLE composition represented by various libraries, or included in multiple catalogues.

This is not a personal indictment or castigation of you in particular, but a wake-up call RE the practice itself, and the ethics therein.

When this comes to court -- and it will -- there's gonna be a lot of 'splainin' to do, Lucy...

Gael

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Gael MacGregor
Music Supervisor
gaelmacgregor at yahoo.com
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www.imdb.com/name/nm0532320
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--- On Mon, 7/7/08, Josh Silver <josh at repose.mu> wrote:

> From: Josh Silver <josh at repose.mu>
> Subject: Re: [Fmpro] Retitling
> To: gaelmacgregor at yahoo.com, fmpro at nxport.com
> Date: Monday, July 7, 2008, 4:29 PM

... I don't see how it can be fraud if both parties involved are ok with the situation...