Recently I was sent an article from a Canadian website concerning a rights grab by the Vancouver Olympics.
It seems that professional singer and songwriter Nicole Scoffield wrote a composition called Sea to Skyway about the road that links Vancouver and Whistler, which come February, will be the main sites of Olympic sport events. Scoffield sent the song to VANOC, as well as to B.C. premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
She got a shock when officials at VANOC sent her a contract demanding she give up ownership and royalties — even before they would listen to it.
This got me to do some research some other Canadian websites
TechDirt has some great stuff about what the Vancouver Olympic Committee is doing concerning controlling rights to certain words such as Olympic!
So after living through the years of discussion about whether or not the Olympics would be good for Chicago, and then having the whole point rendered moot by the Olympic committee’s rejection of my fair city, I am glad that I will never have to deal with that mess. Just the everyday mess of the music business!!!
On an unrelated note, just photographed the mighty Anvil last week. The publicists (Heidi Ellen Robinson and Julie Arkenstone) couldn’t have been nicer and more professional. One email set up the shoot and the photo pass and a perfect followup email with all the details was sent in plenty of time to print out and bring to the gig. Anyone who has ever worked with Heidi knows that she is one of the great ones, and anyone who works for her is learning form the best. Makes me long for the good old days!!
