"The Lawyers Sleep Tonight"
If you're reading this, you probably have some interest in copyright law and intellectual property, seemingly mundane topics that I tend to gravitate towards being a writer and lawyer. My interest has had a global twist since I traveled to Jamaica in 2004 to research a story on the plight of Jamaican artists. Free Market Reggae
"The Lawyer's Sleep Tonight" is breaking news on a story I've been following for a couple of years - it's about Solomon Linda, the deceased southern African artist who first had dibs on the song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." A victorious ending for his family. Read on.
posted by Nyashazasha at 12:43 PM
9 Comments:
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"Victorious?" Perhaps you're being a bit optimistic considering the family was suing for only $1 million and the suit was settled. Starting with the 10 shillings that Eric Gallo paid Solomon Linda in 1939 to an unnamed settlement amount tens of millions of dollars in revenue later, this is an unsatisfactory end to a sad but all too typical cautionary story about culture vultures.
For the full BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4721564.stm
Decided to put this up - has some details about other rip-offs of African IP and what to do about it. http://musicwars.blogspot.com/2006/02/selling-african-knowledge-developing.html
Perhaps optimistic indeed! Still, it is
encouraging to me as it is the first settlement of
its kind and the litigation tactics used were creative.
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