No Soliciting Wanted Please

  • Thread starter Thread starter Toonsmith
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Toonsmith

Toonsmith

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About four months ago I sent in to copyright some music. And before i received my copyright material back from the L.O.C. no less than three companies had sent me crap about wanting my music. I know they're probably fly by night operators and that's not my question. How do these places know about my music before i get the copyrights back? Do they have someone on the inside or is it just common practice to snoop into peoples business?
 
Were the companies Americord or Columbine? If so it's a scam...
 
Hey Toony

Do the copyright people have to publish your details on some sort of public domain circular / register? I guess the hucksters would get their mailing list from this. Or do the copyright folks just sell the data I wonder?
 
I send any and ALL paperwork that I send out (weather it's music related or otherwise) via registered mail. I also pay the extra couple bucks for the return reciept... I do this for 2 reasons:

(1) Someone has to sign for the letter. Which means someone has to take resposnibility for it upon reciept.

(2) The company has no excuse to claim they didn't know the contents of or didn't recieve your mail.


Now why do I bring this up? Because I once ended up on some stupid mailing list after sending out a mailing... so I learned this little trick:

I now send along with everything I mail a form letter indicating that I expect the company to respect my right to privacy. And I attach also a copy of the Right to Privacy Act along with the letter.

If I start getting mailings I simply contact the company sending me the junk mail (via registered mail) and make a formal request that they discontinue their mailing. and I also request where they got my info in the first place. Some places are more than happy to comply and tell you who they bought their miling list form.

At this point I take a copy of the correspondence naming the company that gave out my info and send them another regisered letter outlining my original request NOT to release my info with the copy attached. They're clearly busted.

Why would I bother to go through with all this? Simple: I also sent the company a bill (on my company letterhead) for about $150-200 +expenses requesting compensation for my time. If they refuse to pay (which they usually do at first) I simply send a couple notices, then after 90days I hand it to a collection agency... some will actually buy the account for about 60-70% of the value. So I make $90-$140 (+exp) each time... is this legal?

Technically yes... you are entitled to money for services or goods recieved... and you exerted time and effort clearly as a result of someone elses incompetence. There's probably a 50%/50% chance it would get tossed if it went to court... and you'd end up with nothiing, but once a company's credit rating is at risk they usually cough up the dough just to save their own ass... then they file the bill and call it a service. And no company is going to pay a lawyer $100-200/hr to fight a $150-200 claim...

Last year I made about $1200.00 that way... just remember... your time is worth money. Bill people for it!

-- I had a lawyer friend once who after waiting in his doctor's waiting room for over an hour, billed the doctor for 1 hr's time. And got it! -- His argument (which did appear in small claims court) was simply this: The doctor set the appointment at a specified time then didn't follow through or give acceptable notice to reschedule... the doctor's now charge a $25-50 fee for cancelations not made within 24hrs of the appointment, so it's perfectly acceptable to bill the doctor for his time spent waiting for the appointment.

Ya just have to be a prick about it and spend a little time and effort ... personally I think it's worth it just to kick these corporate basterds in the nuts now and then.

- Tanlith -
 
Nice way to handle that kind of stuff, Tanlith.
I'll have to add that to my repertoire.

good advice!!

diendolo
 
:D

For the sake of not posting a real long story here I give you another (brief) example of why it's worth it to take time sometimes...

Bell Canada over billed me once so I started a paperwork avalanche on them... I sent mail stating that I would be happy to pay the actual ammount owed as soon as I recieve an updated invoice showing the correction. -- 2 months of swapping paperwork resulted in them finally giving up and not charging me for the entire month in question. (Keep in mind... I did NOT withhold funds for any of the other months following the incident)

When it comes to dealing with burocrats there's one thing I I can say:

Learn the rules ... then USE them! Fight fire with fire!

- Tanlith -
 
Toonsmith,

There are companies on retainer to get the newest gene tests from the Copyright Office the instant they're posted. Those companies sell those lists for about $.15-$.20 per name to anyone who will buy them.

One of the better companies of the day - especially for accuracy - was COPYSEARCH, operated by Peter A. Constandy. I think they've merged with somebody else by now as we haven't heard from them for several years.

Even so, ANY 'company' that approaches you about your newly copyrighted music is a scam. Bank on it. Columbine, one Hollywood records (not the Disney label), and a few dozen 'lead sheet' printers, a scad of "your-record-in-our-non-distributed-album" are all Song Sharks. No exceptions.

However, you can get a bit of revenge. If they have postage paid envelopes, send them back, empty. They can't even find out who returned it ..

TDA
 
Thanks for all the replies!

One of the companies was Americord. Another was Hilltop Records and then Taxi wanting money for lead sheets. They all seem like shams. Like those ads you see in the back of magazines wanting new music.

That's some good stuff Tanlith but I really don't want to take money from these jokers. Although I believe that's what they're trying to do to me. In fact, I get a kick out of getting some of this junk. You know? But now I just throw it away.

The Copyright office does have a public search engine for copyrights. It's fun to look through some on them and see people like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Sting, etc. etc.. It's cool being on the same data base.

I always send my copyrights by registered mail. Hell, it took me long enough to write the damn stuff! Like you said it's better you know they have it.
 
check http://allmusic.com/ to see if they are registered there.
anyone claiming to be involved in the industry will be posted on that site...ANYONE!

Although there are some good INDIE places out there :nod:
 
w/ the postage payed envelope- wouldn't it be better to fill it w/ something heavy and useless so they have to pay more? :)
 
w/ the postage payed envelope- wouldn't it be better to fill it w/ something heavy and useless so they have to pay more?
Click to expand...

Apparently the trick is to tape the envelope to a house brick.
 
Just put some dirt in it and send it off. Or be creative - the nearest vacuum cleaner bag, for instance.
 
If ya REALLY wanna fuck with em... put talcom powder in it and be sure NOT to put a return address.... and mail it from the next town. hehehehe

Or better yer flour.... it's oderless...

- Tanlith -
 
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