Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

["shirley.o'loughlin" <shirley.o'loughlin AT virgin.net>]

Title:   5. RE: FW: You Can Download Dolly Mixture Stuff Here...      (pascale amzallou)

Pascale,

I just read your discussion re: downloading/ copying cds etc – particularly the section below:

“How many copies of This Heat or the Left Banke or
Raincoats CDs have people asked me to make for
them, as they are out of print?  I am always happy to
oblige them, because unlike the copyright holders, I
consider these artists to have artistic and cultural
Value that ought to be shared, and if the right people won't
do it, well . . .”

I just want to make a couple of points here because these things very often are not so simple and 
sometimes it is actually difficult to ‘share’ your own work despite your best efforts to try and do that.

We (The Raincoats) have just spent the last 3 years embroiled in a legal battle over our own rights 
with One Little Indian who bought Rough Trade Records back catalogue in the mid nineties. 

We had signed a 5 year contract (6 years including sell off periods) with Rough Trade Records for the 
cd reissues of the first 3 Raincoats albums in the mid nineties and this had expired with the rights 
returning to the band. 

I contacted OLI, who held the masters and was informed that as they thought they controlled the 
copyright in perpetuity they were pressing new copies of the albums for their label Second Wind. 
We had to get a lawyer involved to point out the obvious and had to spent a lot of money to stop  
them selling the cds through their distributors.

In December 2004 they finally agreed to give us the cds they had pressed as a settlement for money 
they owed us in royalties and in lawyers costs and to save trashing those records.

This is why the 4 albums are finally available again through Rough Trade Shops and their web site 
currently.

I’m sure many other artists have come up against similar problems, despite the fact they actually have 
drawn up sensible contracts with their rights reverting back to the artists. 

It’s not always that simple or easy!

All the best,
Shirley