Odd story about someone swiping credit for old demoscene tracker songs
The point is that someone has stolen 11 classic demoscene tracker songs and is selling them on every major online music store. The album is called “H4x0r R007z” and it consists entirely of blatantly stolen tracker songs lazily renamed using 1337 text, which usually means finding the original song is pretty easy.
Found via the highly recommended newsletter Caesura
Not surprising really. But being the devils advocate, if there is no copyright and the songs were released into the public domain, there’s little to be done about it. A lot of tracker material was that way in those days.
I copyright all my stuff and have for years. That being said, it something of mine is used without my permission and in violation of US copyright laws by someone outside the US, again, little to be done. It’s very expensive to pursue damages via legal channels outside the US. (Hell, even across state lines in the US. Ask me how I know.)
Cheers.
Copyright (in the USA at least) is the default. You have to explicitly declare something different (CC, public domain, or the like) for it to be the case.
That said, the original authors are/were likely not too concerned about it (I’m guessing) but it’s skeevy to just claim the work of others.
Yep, you’re right. Copyright is the default so I should have said registered copyright. Copyright laws in the US under the Constitution are “blanket” type guarantees for the most part. The real problem is when it comes time to prove someone is the owner of the work. That’s why I copyright my material and create a paper trail.
I have a working agreement contract that I require my clients to sign to protect me and them. It includes a very explicit section of who owns what. They don’t sign, I don’t work for them. I learned my lesson years ago …
I agree with you too about using someone else’s work. Unacceptable without permission or giving credit.