[78-L] Copyright Criminals on PBS - George Clinton/Clyde Stubblefield

[Michael Biel]

A link from the BBC article about the John Cage copyright case reminded
me who was the musician who lost his copyrights to a company run by a
lawyer who will not license his works for samples but only sues those
who use samples of his recordings  -- George Clinton.  The 2002 article
mentioning the loss of his copyrights is here, but the lawyer running
that company -- the guy who slammed the phone down saying "NO!" even
before he was asked to license a sample -- is not Johnnie Cochran.  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1961488.stm

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



-------- Original Message --------

Because many of the other original musicians are either dead or the
companies that control their recordings would not let the film's
producers use their recordings as examples. Stubblefield is a working
musician who produces weekly gigs in Madison, Wis. and did this
interview to self-promote. I had never heard of him before. This is
the best publicity he has ever gotten. In the panel session I attended,
the producers mentioned another performer who's recordings had been
sampled but the company he recorded for was taken over by a lawyer who
realized that there was millions to be made by suing, not by licensing.
They told the story about how a record company wanted to license a
sample from him with the blessing of the original performer and was
repeatedly put off by the secretaries and everyone else. Finally after
several weeks they were able to schedule a phone call. The secretary
put the call thru, and before they had a chance to introduce themselves,
the guy shouted "NO!" and slammed the phone down. They wanted to use
interviews about this but knew the guy would sue them. They didn't have
film or audio of that phone call. Leah and I are trying to remember the
performer, but it probably was someone we had never heard of in the
first place.


From: eugene hayhoe <jazzme48912 at yahoo.com>

Wasn't that hard; he is mentioned here and there on records, by JB and
others. 
 
If you mean unknown to the same folks who don't know anything that
happened before say, 2000, even if they were present (also known as 'the
general public') then I guess I'd have to agree. But drummers and other
musicians have known about he and Starks for a long time, if I recall
correctly, I've seen features bout 'the drummers of JB' as far back as
the '70s in places like Modern Drummer & Musician. In one of them,
published while JB was living, he said that he had no interest in
talking to JB, whom he hadn't seen in many years, because he 'didn't
treat people right.' 
 
Gene

--- On Sat, 1/23/10, Tim Huskisson <timhuskisson at btinternet.com> wrote:

From: Tim Huskisson <timhuskisson at btinternet.com>
Morally and legally I agree with you. But the irony is nobody had even
heard
of Clyde Stubblefield until samples of his playing started appearing on
other artist's records. James Brown rarely gave album credits to his
band
members.    Tim Huskisson


-----Original Message-----
From:  eugene hayhoe
Mr. Stubblefield and his fellow drummer with JB, Jabo Starks, have been
legends for many years in other, more contemporary musical circles. 
 
What I consider Brown's best known work, c. 1965-'69, was mostly cut
with
one or both of them on the drums. No surprise to me at all that he's
among
the most sampled. Sure seems to me that, morally, if not legally, he
should
get some cash out of others profiting from his work. Haven't had a
chance to
see the doc yet.
 
Gene