Mp3 Allies
Independent Musicians Union - Shotgun Don Campbell
USA
The Fair Royalty Act - Can you Spend a Dollar to Further the cause of Independent Music?
We the Independent Musicians living in The USA and around the World would like the US copyright office The Congress, Senate and President of he United States of America and all applicable International agency's to consider that current law and copyright protection is not a fair and level playing field that is forcing any and all artists to provide at no charge free content to Online Music Distribution (OMD) and Online Radio Stations sites as well as photos and other copyrighted material which is then used for the purpose of selling advertisers for the purpose of generating a profit. We the undersigned consider any company that makes us waive our rights to royalties to be a collective monopoly. These include companies like Myspace, Soundclick, OurStage and others that have essentially the same rules of service that currently to get exposure ostensibly for artists with copyrighted material are forced to use because the size of these companies prevents competition and as such we the undersigned feel the time has come to insist that current copyright laws be changed to require any and all streaming and or downloading of copyrighted material through these companies to pay Royalties based on a fair basis calculated by the number of plays, downloads or unique views. With today's technologies these are easily calculated. Artists properly registered with a Recording Artist company such as BMI or ASCAP would be eligible for Royalties to be determined in negotiation with such Royalty collection companies.
Over Fifty years ago we had Radio and these artists eventually were protected from this then new technology. The time has come to protect this new generation of video artists and musicians that feel forced by large companies collectively using monopoly practices to prevent Royalty payments . The way this is done has been generally stated above and the reality that the terms of service does not often differentiate from one OMD to another.
So we the undersigned are asking for real change. We don't want to put companies out of business but the time has come to stop the monopoly practices we see on a daily basis.
I would suggest to these companies that they consider what an Independent Artist Strike might do to their site. Ad revenue collection would be hurt severely and stock values would drop.
By signing below you are committing yourself that all statements made above are true in your minds and hearts. You are also considering the idea of participating in a general Independent musician strike of all existing OMD's and Online Radio Stations who do not pay Royalties to be announced at such a time when it would be most effective.
The Independent Musician Union to be formed will be for the purpose of helping to pass legislation to change the laws. The price of joining the union will be $1.00 per year. Paid through Pay Pal. This money will be used for promotional purposes to help grow the movement. All expenditures will be disclosed as per applicable law. Membership is required to sign this petition because it will take money to get publicity for this cause that affects all artists who have copyrighted material on these sites so it is currently required.
My goal is 25,000 members in one year.
Don Campbell
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Basic Membership $1 per year - Premium Membership $5 per year!
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Important Disclaimer
Joining the Independent Musicians Union does not guarantee membership on this site and is intended solely to show a STRONG sign of solidarity amongst todays Independent Musicians with the intention of bringing a focus on why todays Independent artists should be paid for the use of their music on commercial internet sites. It should be noted there are no current guarantees and Not for Profit Independent Internet Radio stations should be exempt from any fees proposed as long as they are not for profit stations and abide by current copyright laws. Watch this site for further devlopments.
THE LIST STARTS NOW! ADD YOUR NAME BY DONATING TODAY! TELL YOUR FRIENDS! PREMIUM MEMBERS GET LINKED TO THEIR MUSIC SITE!
Charter Member and Founder - Don Campbell
PREMIUM MEMBER - MARTIN - THE CELTURIAN
PREMIUM MEMBER - Kevin Lee Smith
PREMIUM MEMBER - MPaul Dancko
PREMIUM MEMBER - Jeremy Guther of Trinity Road
PREMIUM MEMBER - Dicarlo Online Mixing and Mastering
PREMIUM MEMBER - Mikle Krizanovski
add your name..new names will be listed by date received
You may wonder why do this?
From Fox News Today Feb 17 2008
"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof."
In other words, while it doesn't actually own your photos, scribblings and status updates — you do — Facebook can do whatever it wants with it, whenever it wants, in order to promote itself or create or sell ads."
PERPETUAL? WHY BOTHER TO RELEASE A CD? THEY CAN STREAM YOUR SONGS FREE FOREVER IF YOU AGREE TO SUCH LANGUAGE!
It needs to be noted that within one day the power of the Facebook community caused a reversal of this poorly thought out change in their terms of service and have now returned to their previous terms of service due to their CONTENT PROVIDERS objections to the changes. This Proves change is possible.
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