Seiya (ex-DEVILOOF) & copyright

[zeus]

I wonder if it’d cost more to settle in his favor than he’d earn back from royalties.

Regardless, I called this a while ago.

@zeus

My opinion is that I don’t believe Seiya is entitled to much in his dispute with DEVILOOF (and note that I’m not versed in Japanese copyright law at all). These issues around royalties and permission to play are things that should be ironed out before the band is formed, or at the very least before you depart.

Yeah, it sucks to see the band you used to be in nick your unfinished licks and continue to play your songs - which are arguably among some of the best they’ve got - without giving you much consideration. But when those songs were composed, there was no consideration for anyone to play the songs but DEVILOOF. The songs were composed for DEVILOOF. DEVILOOF is still playing those songs, whether Seiya is in the band or not. They have no reason to stop playing those songs just because Seiya is no longer in the band. If they do, cool - if they don’t, too bad.

Now if they had some arrangement up front where Seiya gets royalties for the songs that he composed, and he hasn’t gotten paid, then honor that arrangement and pay up. If you didn’t have the foresight to arrange that before you left the band, sorry but you’re outta luck. It’s just business, and if Seiya composed at least 60% of DEVILOOF’s back catalog then it’s also unreasonable to demand they stop playing them and then completely synthesize new songs on the spot. Sorry, but any DEVILOOF concert that doesn’t have Gouzinzangoku or Dusky-Vision is a concert missing two staples.

@zeus

So what I’m basically saying is that while I agree that he should get paid, I don’t think that he will. That’s what I meant when I said that he wasn’t entitled to much; I don’t think there’s much in the way of recompense that he could (reasonably) ask for. What’s done has been done, and I’m not sure that the new label is going to care about stolen demos from releases that aren’t theirs, so I’m not sure how the shakedown for the major label will go. Hopefully he gets paid somehow, but the odds aren’t looking good.