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Topic: West Side Story delayed again. Needless red tape |
Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 29 Oct 2003 7:26 pm |
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I mentioned earlier that the legal red tape surrounding the release of my West Side Story CD is finally being untangled, but earlier today I hit a totally needless snag.
In order to officially release the CD, I need to get the proper licensing from the Bernstein estate. One single license for the entire CD won't do. I need to get a seperate one for each song.
Today I learned that I've only been able to get 18 of the 20 required licenses, because somebody at my credit card company got suspicious at the filing of 20 different charges to the same place, and refused to authorize payment for the last 2. This was done without consulting with me to determine if the charges were legitimate or not. Furthermore, I was not notified by the credit card company that they suspected there might be a problem. I had to wait until the folks at the other end told my attorney that there was a problem.
After a lengthy phone call to the credit card company, I convinced them to go ahead and authorize payment of the fees for the last 2 songs ($80.00 per song). But now my attorney has more work to do (which probably means I have to pay him some more money) and the eventual release date of the CD has been pushed back yet again.
This was totally unnecessary. All the person at the credit card company had to do was call me and ask. Instead, he or she took it upon him or herself to throw a monkey wrench into the already complicated process.
Hopefully the CD will be available by December. I tend to think though that it will take longer, Partly because of this act of stupidity.[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 29 October 2003 at 07:27 PM.] |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 29 Oct 2003 7:43 pm
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"This was totally unnecessary. All the person at the credit card company had to do was call me and ask. Instead, he or she took it upon him or herself to throw a monkey wrench into the already complicated process."
Mike, there's a lot of identity theft going on out there today. You should be thankful that this person had YOUR interests at heart. I was gonna buy a DVD player today. My credit card wouldn't scan, although the clerk tried three or four times. By the time I got home(WITHOUT MY DVD PLAYER), the card folks had left a message, saying that my card was being questionably used. I straightened that out, went to another store, and bought my DVD player. And I thanked the lady at Citicard.
But the West Side Story CD is for sale on your website. What gives? This is one of my favorite works, and I was gonna order it. But if you're doing something involving a copyright violation, I'm a little bit afraid.
Or is their some way around the law??[This message was edited by Stephen Gambrell on 29 October 2003 at 07:53 PM.] |
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John McGann
From:
Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 29 Oct 2003 8:15 pm
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What a drag, Mike! This kind of thing happens to me when I don't use my credit card for awhile- if I make a few purchases usually the 3rd one gets declined, and after sitting on the phone for 20 minutes to get through to a human at the company, I'm told it's because of "unusual activity"- I guess if you don't carry a five figure balance these days, it's unusual!
Folks, this is another amazing CD from Mike (he shared an advance copy with me)- great music! |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 29 Oct 2003 11:30 pm
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Steve, I do understand that the person at the company thought he or she was looking out for my best interests. But he or she should have called me and asked before arbitrarily refusing to authorize the payment. Especially since they already Ok'd payment of the fees for the first 18 tunes.
The CD is on the web site so that people can hear the MP3s, but is actually not yet available except through me. So far I've only pressed up 100 copies for promotional purposes. The person who put together my web site mistakenly put in a "buy CD " button wth a link to the Forum, but Bobby does not yet have copies for sale. He only has the personal copy I sent him as a gift. I will of course have copies for sale as soon as I have the licenses, and Bobby will be the first to receive them.
The CD was originally scheduled for release by the record company that released Firebird Suite (who are now more or less out of business) 3 years ago. It has been in legal limbo all that time.
However, with any luck, it will be available reasonably soon. I'm hoping to have it officially (and legally) released by December. |
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Wade Medlock
From:
Avondale Estates, GA USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2003 9:38 am
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| Mike, sorry to hear all the tangles with West Side Story. I know you've worked hard on this project for a very long time. I look forward to fewer lawyers and more Perlowin pushing the steel guitar envelope. |
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