RIAA related: My brother's old garage band...

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-07-26 08:38am

basically when my brother was studying in college, becoming the biochemist he is today, he was a member of a college Garage Band, doing folk music. They covered some very standard folk tunes and even created one of their own called "On The Trail of Tears" which was instermental. They released their own CD of this, named after their centerpiece orginal work, and released the whole album on the net, for friends who couldn't get one of the few printed albums, could burn their own, and spread the word....

fast forward, a few years, the band's broken up, they all have jobs, all the cover songs were too their knowledge public domain stuff (although some folks have recently covered a few of the same tunes as well) From my understanding the RIAA would try to sue my bro, and his pals for releasing their own IP for free?

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-07-26 08:41am

Unless "On the Trail of Tears" was copyrighted I don't see how the RIAA have any jurisdiction.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-07-26 08:55am

the RIAA has no jurisdiction over works that can legally be distributed through file sharing. If the author of the work in question gives his go ahead to distribute the file and it isn't copyrighted or owned by any other company, the RIAA can't do shit.

m112880 · Post by **m112880** » 2004-07-26 09:24am

if the artist allows the songs to be downloaded its ok. most artist support music downloading because its a way for their works to get out.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-07-26 09:40am

Yes, but hey have prosecuted someone in LA for selling recordings of amature Mexican Mariachi bands, which given that the RIAA's jurisdiction stops at the confines of the 50+ Peurto Rico....

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-07-26 10:14am

Was your brother's band called Ikon?

A quick search on www.allmusic.com showed that a band by that name released an album "Flowers of the Gathering" with a song named "on the trail of tears" in 1997.

If your brothers band wasn't Ikon then I suppose it's possible that the RIAA think your brothers "on the trail of tears" is a cover. Of course if this is a mix up over a name all this trouble could have easily been avoided by actually listening to the two songs before firing off the lawsuit but actually applying a little common sense before firing off a series of lawsuits would spoil the RIAA’s carefully contrasted corporate image as overly litigious bullies.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-07-26 10:53am

The Yosemite Bear wrote:Yes, but hey have prosecuted someone in LA for selling recordings of amature Mexican Mariachi bands, which given that the RIAA's jurisdiction stops at the confines of the 50+ Peurto Rico....

selling someone elses recordings is hardly the same thing as distributing it freely when they've given their permission to. as it's effectively making profit from someone elses work when you have no permission to make profit. file sharing is typically non profit.