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| Robert Fripp's Diary | Login | Register | Help |
08.32  Loud rain as we went to bed. Rising to a grey day. Morning reading…  14.20 Sleevenote editing continuing. WillyFred has gone to his Bunny Hotel. We are off to London. The street I…  II...  18.28 Minx Pad, Chiswick.  A straightforward journeying down. We are awaiting the arrival of Bill Rieflin, back from Spain with Robyn Hitchcock and pal Paul, senior steward at BA. Meanwhile, e-flurrying. 18.58 More UMG dissension. Declan Panegyric, our DGM distributor, wrote to iTunes on 5th. July 2012… Subject: King Crimson / iTunes / Sanctuary / UMG I spoke via email with S. Previously I dealt with M at Apple… I license the King Crimson/Robert Fripp catalogue on behalf of the copyright owner (Robert Fripp) & his management company (DGM) via my company & label (Declan Colgan Music Ltd./Panegyric Recordings) for worldwide digital sales. M helped me effect a takedown a few years ago from iTunes of some King Crimson material that had been offered for sale by iTunes, after seemingly being supplied with the recordings by Sanctuary/UMG. I've enclosed the relevant emails from then as "Sanctuary UMG iTunes". As you can see, UMG subsequently acknowledged that the company had never had any digital rights in the material. Despite this we've never managed to resolve this issue with Sanctuary/UMG. In order to move things forward I need to find out how many copies of the tracks on the two albums involved were in fact sold by iTunes around the world and where and at what price; and what sums were remitted/credited to UMG and/or Sanctuary by iTunes in respect of such sales… On July 16th. 2012 Declan wrote to iTunes again… I was wondering if you had any chance to investigate this for me? To date I have not had a response of any sort (other than from Steffen prior to my sending this). Any update would be most welcome. On July 17th. iTunes replied… This information is subject to confidentiality provisions in our agreements, and we are trying to track down approval from Sanctuary. The short (part of a long) story… 1. iTunes is refusing to give us information on KC downloads, provided to them by UMG who had acquired Sanctuary. 2. In 2002 David Singleton and myself personally negotiated the KC contract with the Sanctuary NY lawyer, mostly at midnight during breaks in The Late Shift at DGM HQ (working on The Power To Believe). 3. The Sanctuary contract explicitly withheld download rights. 4. The Sanctuary contract also had a provision that in the eventuality Sanctuary was acquired by another company, the KC/Sanctuary contract was voided. 5. Tim Smith, Business Affairs lawyer at UMG, spent 3 years (2006-9) writing to us, denying that Sanctuary had been acquired by UMG; and therefore the nullifying clause was itself null and inapplicable.(17th July 2009 and 16th August 2011) and scroll down to Declan’s e-mail to UMG's Mr. Outside Lawyer Man, Brian Howard (30th August 2011). 6. Tim Smith eventually provided us a letter confirming that Sanctuary did not have any download rights to KC (although I am not currently sure whether Mr. Smith argues that UMG did / did not acquire Sanctuary when UMG bought Sancutary). 7. iTunes is refusing to provide us with information on the unauthorized sales of our material, provided to them by a party that had no right to do so, simply because that unauthorized party provided it to them. 8. This highlights a flaw in iTunes business policy, with several ramifications. What is iTunes due diligence on the bona fides of providers of material? To iTunes... Thursday, 19th March 2009 1. What systems did Sanctuary UMG have in place to check proper licensing before making the material available to you? 2. What systems do you have in place to check proper licensing before making the material available to the public? Declan sent this to iTunes a couple of hours ago… Confidentiality is irrelevant and cannot anyway apply to material in which Sanctuary has never had any rights (as clearly acknowledged by their lawyer in material already submitted to iTunes & copied to you recently. It's enclosed again for clarity.) For the same reason you will not be able to obtain any “approval” from Sanctuary. I am the exclusive licensee of the material and the only issue here is that iTunes was in breach of my copyright in selling the material. Please can I now have, as requested, your confirmation by return that the information requested by me as licensee of the material will be provided without further delay. Just off from myself… i write as copyright owner / controller of the material. this is to confirm declan's position. we had a similar situation with i-Tunes re: lakeshore entertainment's claims to a track used on the CD version of the soundtrack to Buffalo 66. your view, then, was that you'd ask lakeshore entertainment for instructions to take it down. my view, with considerable details provided to you, was that lakeshore entertainment did not have the rights and were not able to substantiate them. this proved to be the case and i-Tunes withdrew the track (king crimson's moonchild). Sanctuary, in our extensive correspondence with them, have acknowledged that they have never had digital rights in this material. digital rights were specifically excluded from the Sanctuary contract i negotiated personally (with david singleton) in 2002. when Sanctuary was acquired by UMG in 2006 all manner of violations to the contract followed. so, if you wish to track down approval from Sanctuary, you are going to the wrong person. the right person is - myself. the second right-ist person is declan. please, check the track Buffalo 66 and lakeshore entertainment (there lawyer was mr. cohen) if you need, and the contractual material i provided you then. it will save a lot of time for me as i am currently away from my desk. (16th March 2009) 19.25 Waiting for Bill to arrive after a delayed flight. 01.34 Bredonborough. A fabbo social eveing with Bill and Paul at the Bollo Gastropub. A speak-loudly table nearby did not manage to overwhelm us, despite its best shouting-efforts. A good returning journey. To bed. Search Robert Fripp's diary archive. |
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