Brian...

Young man...we do disagree on some very basic points, and I don't think we're going to change our opinions...You have said several times that it's not my "right" to take away the "right" of others to earn.

My point is that we're talking about a miniscule amount for the writer to earn (in most real world cases) as opposed to the cost to the entertainer.

How did I learn all those cover songs ?
By spending a small fortune on records, tapes and cds, and of course sheet music.
All of which the writers and the artists are paid for.

I think they're getting plenty.

I'm not taking rights to collect away from the writers in my opinion.
If their songs are so good that they can make or break a performance artist should he or she decide to or not to decide to perform them,...
Then the writer should go out and perform them and make all the really big money and glamour they're missing out on.

That really is my position as close to a nutshell as I can get it.

Yes, I do think it's OK to get paid for radio plays...
A bunch of poor kids aren't busting their asses playing the song...it's a recording...
Recordings are THE reason a station is on the air...an essential ingredient to their success...sure they shouldpay...

But venues are sadly proving every day that they can exist without live music..

We have a whole generation that's grown up believing that recorded music is fine for a wedding...
Major awards shows on TV even, are using recorded music...

Local music scenes are withering and dying..

THAT concerns me !

I wish ASCAP and BMI were collecting fees and using the money properly..

I don't think they are...
If everybody can't be paid for plays, then nobody should.
Use the money for something else..education.. or something..

It's a badly flawed system in my opinion, doing no one any real substantial good.

It's been in place forever, and nobody cared,,...

Apparently somebody somewhere woke up and said "Hey...this is a lousy deal" and now it's this big mess.

A point too, Brian...

You said somewhere in this menage that the "government" decided this is how it should be.
That's inaccurate...
The PROs were and are private organizations.
They were and are desighned to collect and account for the money we are supposedly owed under copywright law...

they adhere to copyright law but have no affiliations (outside of licensses) with the government.

I don't know what's best for everybody...

It would be great if everybody got paid for something..

I say, if a songwriter believes his or her song is so good that he or she should get paid for the performance...
Let he or she invest what the performer does in the performance art and then go get paid for writing the song AND performing it.

They can say.."all right everybody...if you want to hear my song you've got to pay me for writing it AND performing it"

Then they don't have to worry about me or anybody else getting fabulously wealthy at Joe's bar this weekend because I included their song among the 70 or 80 other songs I did that night.

If their song is the ONLY reason I'm working at Joes...
Then they should come on down to Joes and sing that song over and over and over till the place is packed !

I don't know , Brian....the whole deal is beginning to look like a Fellini movie !

JPF is a huge organization.

I think if the PROs had a strong case to make for themselves...they would be here making it.
The argument that they don't show up because they might get yelled at....

I've seen society weddings get alot angrier than what goes on here..

I think they don't show up because they know their position is weak, their system is flawed and inequitable, and they don't want alot of people to realize it all at once !

I do believe that your best interests are for the JPF members...

I just don't think this situation genuinely benefits anybody..

When you buy a CD...is there a warning on it that you will be charged if you play it at a party where admissions are charged ?
Does it say on there somewhere in all that fine print that if you learn how to play one of the songs on your guitar and then go perform that and a bunch of other songs for a fee that you will be charged ?

I don't think so..

correct me if I'm wrong..it's true I don't get out much any more.

Plain and simple, Brian..
I'm sho-biz !
I figure you as a writrer should be proud and satisfied that I perform your song in my little act...
It may introduce people to your song and send them to the store to buy it, which puts money in your pocket.
I don't think I, as a performer, should have to pay you to promote your work.

I bought this damn fender strat...it's mine...I couldn't work without it...but Leo's family aren't insisting I send them a cut from the Koppleman wedding !

It just don't seem fair Brian...

sorry I'm just not getting it.

Bob