12.55
DGM HQ.
Happy Birthday to us! Eric, Sid, John, Alex, Hugh, Indeg, Nicky, Amy, Declan, David, the HRHVL and waving to Masa, Atsushi & Tami. We are two-years old today.
A morning of paper. Cruel paper.
15.03 Listening to Travis & Fripp. Theo has sent 9 tracks from our DGM session, mixed by Steve Wilson. I am enjoying these.
15.55 Mr. Stormy has selected Monday hot tickles of some excitement, aided by David & myself.
Two boxes of bootlegs, one from California, one from Holland, have been opened & passed to Mr. Stormy for his archiving-attention.
16.40 Gert-Jan sends postcards for keeping…
Little Devils…
These are aspects of what is lowest in us, the nasty little characters that inhabit our inside. Mr. Bitter-Because-The-World-Has-Not-Recognised-My-Greatness, Mr. Your-Failure-Is-My-Opportunity, Mr. You-Look-Out-When-I-Have-Power! Mr. Swelling-With-Selfworth-&-Righteousness, Mr. I-Get-A-Rush-By-Putting-One-Over-On-You, Mr. I-Will-Humiliate-&-Put-You-Down. And Mr. Critic, Mrs. Negative, Mr. Bad-Mouth-My-Friends… accurate depictions of little someones with attitude, nastiness, negativity, thinking the worst of others, jealousy, bitterness, unkindness & claiming spurious rights merely because they breathe.
These and other little creatures are not imaginary, neither are they merely aspects of medieval religiosity: but actual, everyday little selves that we don’t care to recognise or admit to owning. But if we did know them better, we might also put them in their place & neutralise their effects.
17.53 Another kitchen meeting! David & Robert have been reading & discussing our commissioned audit of EMI…
Mr. Guy Hands of Terra Firma is to be congratulated on his acquisition of EMI. Perhaps. Majors have a diminishing role to play in the future of music-provision. No doubt this is the fault of the artists – only interested in garnering huge advances (which seems to be partly the view of Mr. Hands). The economic base of majors is copyright ownership of the work of others. They are exploitative, incompetent, failed to take a lead in the emerging digital music-world, have problems providing accurate accounting, and fail to honour responsibilities to others that they claim for themselves (eg RF/KC copyrights).
A good buy, EMI?
Goodbye, EMI.
Record Company Settlement With Napster…
It has been well publicised that the major record companies received lump sum payments by way of compensation for unauthorised exploitation of record masters, by the internet sharing platform ‘Napster.’ Such payment would fall to be apportioned by artist and accounted to each artist under under the terms of their Agreement.
We have other clients who received payment from Virgin during the examination period of monies that arose from settlement of litigation. We have not noted any instances of your pro rata payment being made to you.
EMI received money for unauthorised exploitation by Napster of its artists’ records, including KC, and did not pay KC its share.
Q. Why has none of that money come to KC?
A. Because EMI kept it all.
Q. Why did EMI keep it all?
A. That’s a very good question.
Q. Make an informed guess.
A. Well, the three factors that seem mostly likely to apply are incompetence, stupidity or dishonesty. Perhaps Mr. Hands will tell us.
Download Income – Additional Unconsented Download Exploitation…
You noted after the conclusion of the exclusive sales period that many of your masters had been made available to music download sites by Virgin and its affiliates, something which they were aware you objected to…
We requested that Virgin update the calculation of income from downloads, as delays in reporting income would probably result in additional income having been received from the point at which the report was originally ran to. We also request that Virgin quantify the monetary value of King Crimson being added to subscription sites such as Napster.
While these figures may then correctly represent Virgin’s receipts, it takes no account of the damage to your catalogue that such unconsented online exploitation may have caused, particularly where online sales allow the decoupling of songs, undermining the integrity of your catalogue, which you have worked hard to preserve.
And this…
Virgin have in the past sought such damages from third parties who have illegally exploited their catalogue online and you reserve the right to seek such damages from Virgin.
Q. Why would Virgin litigate against online exploitation of their catalogue
without their permission, and then do the same to yours?
A. That’s a very good question.
Q. Then make an informed guess.
A. incompetence, stupidity and/or dishonesty are good candidates for submission / admission; with carelessness, hypocrisy & maintaining a double-standard bidding for inclusion.
Q. Perhaps Mr. Hands will tell us?
A. Perhaps.
There remains another large issue for DGM to address: EMI returns. When a licence-period ends, conventionally there is a 6-month sell-off period. The major then has half-a-year to dispose of their stock, at which point any remaining CDs are to be destroyed, with proof of such. (The stock may also be bought by the new licensor / distributor & stickered). DGM has received no certificate/s of destruction for the US. So, what happened to the American EMI CD stock of the KC catalogue?
18.39 Paper at an end, the inbox is opening to 256.
A call from Sister, enjoying her Thanksgiving morning coffee from the luxury of her Las Vegas up-&-downy bed, looking at her garden from the bedroom window.
21.03 Down to 231.
23.16 The inbox has defeated me, although paper was (mostly) conquered.
Evening listening: arias.
"Commitments are to be honoured."
