11.21
DGM HQ.
The Era of Accountability is underway and, in DGM’s world, becoming increasingly focused. Rough Music With The Left Foot has already begun.
Kitchen meeting I…
II...
… focusing on the ELP boxset, only one area of concern. Sanctuary, now UMG, manufactured a box set for one artist (ELP) that includes a track from another artist (KC), ripped from a commercially-available CD and used without permission because Sanctuary knew a licence would be refused.
David has written to Russells (We… understand the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the entertainment industry) the well-known music industry law firm representing UMG.
Dear Mr. Lawyer Man,
Further to the recent letter from Tim Clark at IE Music, you will know that we have been referred to you by David Joseph, who has sadly rejected the opportunity to settle our long-running dispute with UMG.
I offer a brief overview. In each case under contention, there is no doubt that UMG are the offending party – and yet there has been no meaningful effort to reach a settlement.
The areas are :
1) Post-term sales of King Crimson product by Sanctuary. It has been acknowledged that such sales occurred, but our reasonable requests that their volume can only be quantified by proof of the exact manufacturing quantities, offset against sales and destruction notices, remain unanswered. It is difficult to believe claims that such figures “do not exist”, as all companies are required to retain such invoices for accounting and VAT purposes.
2) The use of a sub-standard illegally edited version of the King Crimson track “Epitaph” as the opening track of a Sanctuary/UMG Emerson, Lake and Palmer box set, without permission. It beggars belief that a major label could simply rip a song from a CD, edit it and release it themselves without prior approval. Again our reasonable requests that any settlement can only be quantified by proof of the exact manufacturing quantities remain unanswered. We must also address the serious offence to the moral rights of the artists, and the need for a public apology to all journalists, newsprint etc for the illegal dissemination of a poorly edited, wrongly labelled, King Crimson track.
3) Digital Sales. King Crimson tracks have repeatedly been offered for sale or streaming online by Sanctuary / Island / UMG despite the fact they have no such rights. Clive Fisher did initially make reasonable efforts to settle this issue, ordering a detailed accounting, and sending a payment. He also assured us that the new UMG online system (DAVE) would prevent any recurrence. In that area, sadly, he has been proved wrong, as the tracks have repeatedly reappeared. It would appear that, even when it seeks to, UMG is incapable of preventing its systems (or those of its licensees) from selling music to which it has no rights. It would seem our next step is to demand the removal of ALL Universal’s online content, as we have solid proof that its copyright protection systems do not work, and thus it is knowingly pirating music.
4) Summers/Fripp albums. These have been sold on CD by UMG since at least 1992 and, despite frequent requests, Robert Fripp has never received any accounting. Our equally frequent requests for a valid contract have now been met by sight of a 1984 contract not signed by Robert Fripp for an unspecified unnamed collaboration album. It is presumably not standard business practice for major labels to sell albums without any attempt to pay royalties, so perhaps we should assume that the ongoing lack of any accounting was because UMG never had rights to these albums in the first place.
There are also several other related issues.
My purpose here is not to deal with the substance of these areas, but to point out that despite UMG clear and repeated infringement on our rights/copyrights, they have made no meaningful efforts to reach a settlement. Indeed we have frequently been met by obfuscation and evasion. Robert Fripp pointed out over three years ago that the obfuscation was in danger of causing greater offence than the original offences, and so it has proved.
When the first of these matters came to light four years ago, our dispute was, in the greater part, not with UMG, but with companies such as Sanctuary that had been acquired by UMG. UMG could rightly have laid the historic blame on Sanctuary, offered an apology and a cheque, and left with honour and goodwill. Instead, UMG has added to the offence through its unwillingness to resolve these issues - to the extent that, in any financial settlement, the huge amounts of our company’s time that UMG has wasted may now be the larger part of our complaint. Every day that Declan Colgan, Robert or myself are forced to revisit these issues is a day lost to creative endeavour, the lifeblood of our company. And we will hold UMG financially liable for each and every one of those days.
Tim Clark at IE Music offered David Joseph the chance to settle the dispute without the need to investigate all the areas for £100,000. In fact, after four years, it is reasonable to demand £100,000 in costs, simply for our time wasted, with detailed accounting in each of the areas in addition. As a result of David Joseph’s decision to refer matters to you, we have already wasted another two days in meetings and letter-writing, so any settlement will rise accordingly.
I would appreciate your confirmation that you have been fully authorized by UMG to supply the necessary facts and to speedily settle this dispute. Otherwise, should we interpret the referral of this case to Russells as yet another part of UMG’s attempts to evade responsibility for a form of corporate music piracy?
11.37 In the inbox, from an artist-pal, the tale of their difficulties getting paid when UMG took over the record company which released their albums.
It seems UMG do not do takeovers very well. We have had problems with BGM/UMG, Island/UMG and Sanctuary/UMG. What is the common factor here? The sharp-eyed among visiting DGM innocents may already have detected this. Even with my short-sightedness, it’s not hard to find.
13.45 E-flurrying. Lots going on. DGM SoundWorld II…
14.16 Shortly off.
20.13 Bredonborough.
Home via Wilton and Mr. Romain of Romain’s Emporium Of Antiquities…
Then tea with Althea Wynne and Tny near Warminster. Althea’s pieces bring life and energy to our home and garden.
Arriving back c. 19.00 and unloading to a lonely WillyFred.
Shopping, calls, e-flurrying.
DGM HQ.
The Era of Accountability is underway and, in DGM’s world, becoming increasingly focused. Rough Music With The Left Foot has already begun.
Kitchen meeting I…
II...
… focusing on the ELP boxset, only one area of concern. Sanctuary, now UMG, manufactured a box set for one artist (ELP) that includes a track from another artist (KC), ripped from a commercially-available CD and used without permission because Sanctuary knew a licence would be refused.
David has written to Russells (We… understand the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the entertainment industry) the well-known music industry law firm representing UMG.
Dear Mr. Lawyer Man,
Further to the recent letter from Tim Clark at IE Music, you will know that we have been referred to you by David Joseph, who has sadly rejected the opportunity to settle our long-running dispute with UMG.
I offer a brief overview. In each case under contention, there is no doubt that UMG are the offending party – and yet there has been no meaningful effort to reach a settlement.
The areas are :
1) Post-term sales of King Crimson product by Sanctuary. It has been acknowledged that such sales occurred, but our reasonable requests that their volume can only be quantified by proof of the exact manufacturing quantities, offset against sales and destruction notices, remain unanswered. It is difficult to believe claims that such figures “do not exist”, as all companies are required to retain such invoices for accounting and VAT purposes.
2) The use of a sub-standard illegally edited version of the King Crimson track “Epitaph” as the opening track of a Sanctuary/UMG Emerson, Lake and Palmer box set, without permission. It beggars belief that a major label could simply rip a song from a CD, edit it and release it themselves without prior approval. Again our reasonable requests that any settlement can only be quantified by proof of the exact manufacturing quantities remain unanswered. We must also address the serious offence to the moral rights of the artists, and the need for a public apology to all journalists, newsprint etc for the illegal dissemination of a poorly edited, wrongly labelled, King Crimson track.
3) Digital Sales. King Crimson tracks have repeatedly been offered for sale or streaming online by Sanctuary / Island / UMG despite the fact they have no such rights. Clive Fisher did initially make reasonable efforts to settle this issue, ordering a detailed accounting, and sending a payment. He also assured us that the new UMG online system (DAVE) would prevent any recurrence. In that area, sadly, he has been proved wrong, as the tracks have repeatedly reappeared. It would appear that, even when it seeks to, UMG is incapable of preventing its systems (or those of its licensees) from selling music to which it has no rights. It would seem our next step is to demand the removal of ALL Universal’s online content, as we have solid proof that its copyright protection systems do not work, and thus it is knowingly pirating music.
4) Summers/Fripp albums. These have been sold on CD by UMG since at least 1992 and, despite frequent requests, Robert Fripp has never received any accounting. Our equally frequent requests for a valid contract have now been met by sight of a 1984 contract not signed by Robert Fripp for an unspecified unnamed collaboration album. It is presumably not standard business practice for major labels to sell albums without any attempt to pay royalties, so perhaps we should assume that the ongoing lack of any accounting was because UMG never had rights to these albums in the first place.
There are also several other related issues.
My purpose here is not to deal with the substance of these areas, but to point out that despite UMG clear and repeated infringement on our rights/copyrights, they have made no meaningful efforts to reach a settlement. Indeed we have frequently been met by obfuscation and evasion. Robert Fripp pointed out over three years ago that the obfuscation was in danger of causing greater offence than the original offences, and so it has proved.
When the first of these matters came to light four years ago, our dispute was, in the greater part, not with UMG, but with companies such as Sanctuary that had been acquired by UMG. UMG could rightly have laid the historic blame on Sanctuary, offered an apology and a cheque, and left with honour and goodwill. Instead, UMG has added to the offence through its unwillingness to resolve these issues - to the extent that, in any financial settlement, the huge amounts of our company’s time that UMG has wasted may now be the larger part of our complaint. Every day that Declan Colgan, Robert or myself are forced to revisit these issues is a day lost to creative endeavour, the lifeblood of our company. And we will hold UMG financially liable for each and every one of those days.
Tim Clark at IE Music offered David Joseph the chance to settle the dispute without the need to investigate all the areas for £100,000. In fact, after four years, it is reasonable to demand £100,000 in costs, simply for our time wasted, with detailed accounting in each of the areas in addition. As a result of David Joseph’s decision to refer matters to you, we have already wasted another two days in meetings and letter-writing, so any settlement will rise accordingly.
I would appreciate your confirmation that you have been fully authorized by UMG to supply the necessary facts and to speedily settle this dispute. Otherwise, should we interpret the referral of this case to Russells as yet another part of UMG’s attempts to evade responsibility for a form of corporate music piracy?
11.37 In the inbox, from an artist-pal, the tale of their difficulties getting paid when UMG took over the record company which released their albums.
It seems UMG do not do takeovers very well. We have had problems with BGM/UMG, Island/UMG and Sanctuary/UMG. What is the common factor here? The sharp-eyed among visiting DGM innocents may already have detected this. Even with my short-sightedness, it’s not hard to find.
13.45 E-flurrying. Lots going on. DGM SoundWorld II…
14.16 Shortly off.
20.13 Bredonborough.
Home via Wilton and Mr. Romain of Romain’s Emporium Of Antiquities…
Then tea with Althea Wynne and Tny near Warminster. Althea’s pieces bring life and energy to our home and garden.
Arriving back c. 19.00 and unloading to a lonely WillyFred.
Shopping, calls, e-flurrying.
