[dolivas]

Originally Posted by Professor Riffs

Now how about this:

http://www.blogs.oregonlive.com/oreg...sp?item=214112

A performance of the Jimi Hendrix classic, "The Wind Cries Mary," may cost Michael Dorr his restaurant.

Dorr, the 37-year-old owner of Imbibe on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, has been slapped with a federal lawsuit by companies that own the rights to a trio of popular classics that were performed at Dorr's restaurant in 2005.

The songs at the center of the suit?

Other than the Hendrix song, the music companies say Stevie Wonder's "That Girl," and a 1971 tune, "Slippin' into Darkness."

Dorr says a rep from the American Society of Musicians and Publishers paid an unannounced visit to his restaurant one night and heard covers of the songs performed by local band "Black Notes."

Because his place features local musicians and covers are rare, he didn't think he had to pay the musicians and publishers group an estimated $2,000 to cover performances of copyrighted tunes.

But the owners of the songs, including Wonder and Hendrix's estate, say he does.

Now they're suing Dorr for copyright infringement - and they're seeking payment of between $750 and $30,000 for each song, along with attorney fees.

"It's basically going to bankrupt me and put me out of business," Dorr said this morning. "I can't afford the lawyer and the fees. It's going to close me down."

The married father of two, who opened Imbibe a couple of years ago, said bands typically start playing after 10. But after Friday, the restaurant will do without live music because of the lawsuit.

"It's a total bummer," he said. "It's scary for me and my family. The restaurant business is hard and on top of other things, business is slow. This is the icing on the cake."



Thoughts?

Who owns the copyrights to the U.S. National Anthem or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road? I mean this smells of hypocrisy if the copyright owners of those two songs sued Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder in the first place for covering those songs live respectively. I mean half of the bands in the 60s and early 70s were doing cover up and down like crazy which means that all those clubs would have gone out of business if there was this ratty rep their. It's just ludicrous in my opinion. It's comparative to you drawing a sketch of the Bombing of Guernica at an art class and having the Van Gogh family demanding royalties for your crappy cubist art.

If you're not selling a cover and the venue is not promoting or selling the cover of that song I don't see how it's or the artist is responsible for whatsoever someone plays on their stage. Freedom of speech/expression goes down the tube everytime something like this happens.