Patents and Copyright

[Tom Novelli]

Allow me to go off on a tangent... how copyrights apply to music.

In the U.S. the copyright holder is supposed to receive a royalty of $.06
per song for every copy sold and every time the song is played for an
audience.  By selling millions of records you can make pretty good money. 
Of course the only way to sell millions is through a record company. 
Problem is, record companies won't sell your records unless you sign over
the copyright to them; 9 times out of 10 they get all the money.  A few
musicians strike it rich; most get screwed; some hit it big-time but
only get modest pay for all that tedious recording and touring.  Others
stay small-time but make just as much money even though they work less and
charge less.

Copyrights don't benefit the musicians, only the record companies, unions,
licensing agencies, Muzak, etc.  The same logic applies to composers,
writers, inventors, engineers, programmers.  Copyrights and patents don't
benefit authors and inventors, they benefit leeches.

Just my $.02 :)

Tom Novelli