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08.05  II...  III...  … to World HQ for morning reading…  08.32 On the DGM Guestbook… corporate :: Posted by david55 on July 23, 2012 “You cannot expect a company the size of UMG to read or apply the details of every contract of every catalogue it acquires.” Isn’t that a bit like saying "you can’t expect a truck this size to stop at every red light"? The quick answer: yes. The longer answer: the driver of a large truck would be concerned to stop at red lights for a variety of reasons, including: danger to others; the illegality of acting otherwise; the likelihood that such conduct would be monitored / recorded; hence enforceable and attributable: a regrettable accountability. Specifically, the frank acknowledgement of UMG’s Business Affairs Lawyer, Mr. Most Useless Of Smiths, suggests that the UMG culture is such that, were UMG to take over EMI, there would inevitably be system failures. Innocent pedestrians would get squashed and other road users hit by the uncontrolled juggernaut. Every company with whom I have had contractual dealings, and which has been taken over by UMG, have been problematic: Bravado (merchandise), A&M, Island, Sony-BMG Publishing, Sanctuary. Whenever there is a problem of accountability, it is blocked by a lawyer. How to determine an honourable settlement? How about a clear statement of accounting? In response to our detailed questions, to determine UMG conduct, Brian Howard, the top London litigating lawyer hired by UMG to block us, replied that he was not going to litigate by e-mail; ie he was not going to give us the information and accounting needed to establish actual UMG behavior. This translates as: I won’t give you the information you need to establish the facts of your claim, so take the (partial) information we have given you and accept our pitiful offer based on it. Mr. Howard also sent us a substantial letter as to why 19 years of unpaid royalties on the two Summers & Fripp albums didn’t actually need to be paid. Well. There we are. 10.50 From a pal working in Poland… Appears every Polish home has two things: a photograph of Pope John Paul the Second and a copy of In the Court of the Crimson King. 16.05 Back across the Square…  … for lunch by the back door. This is the second actual day of our nominal Summer. Returning to World HQ for more computing. A call to Elan Sicroff, discussing The Thomas de Hartmann Project. To a Crafty in despair, to the extent that nothing is possible… dear Crafty, begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible. so, what is possible? if getting out of bed in the morning and saying - Hello God! - is all that's possible, then that's what is it. but, this must be done. it is easy to be overwhelmed, so we do what we can + 10%. one very practical thing i find useful in my own, overwhelmed life - to do one very small thing. for example, i have too many books and CDs to be sorted and placed on shelves. there is no possibility that i can do this. but, i can move one CD or one book to its place on a shelf. but, that one CD or that one book i have to do. then, something has changed. not a lot quantitatively, but very much qualitatively - we are in process. so, we can't do the morning sitting. can we say - Hello God! - and sit on the chair, bring part of attention into our right hand? if that's all we can do, that's our morning sitting. and good to say - Thank you God! - when we get up. crushed by the weight of life, it's very easy to forget that Love is closer to us than the air we breathe. and even if we forget it, Love remains. Returing home to see the Minx off on her several journeyings and meetings. WillyFred is taking care of me, as much as an overly hot little rabbit can. I have been given the job of cooling his ears with a damp handcloth. To computing. 19.12 Calls from the Sistery and the Minx. Computing continues. Search Robert Fripp's diary archive. |
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