Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Arizona
Your assistance would be forever appreciated in this special matter.
my dad had written a song when he was 15 & sent it to nashville. yrs later he heard part of it on the radio. i found his song on the internet & played it for dad. it is indeed his song. turns out it was a major #1 hit, the singer is now well-known from my dad's song. many nights he'd sing his mom the song he'd written. (she shot herself and dad found her)Everytime he'd sing her song he'd cry & have to stop. Dad has no idea that i am consulting you regarding his song. (but, i know he'd be more than willing to answer any questions that you may have regarding it.) My dad's health hasn't been so great. He had to have his leg amputated - i thought i was going to lose him. I want so bad to get him acknowledged & 4 him to know that i really do love him while he's still alive. I'd written a prt 2 to his song that hasn't been touched. I'd gladly give my song for my dad to be recognized 4 his. I love him. I'd appreciate any help/advice that you offer. Thank you! Rspctfly Yrs - DM - [email protected]
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Your assistance would be forever appreciated in this special matter.
Your father's story isn't the first one I have heard about someone sending a song off to Nashville and having it turn up as a number 1 hit. The problem you are going to run into is proof that a copyright violation has occurred after all of these years. There will be much denial and claims of independent creation. (If two people independently create something even if the something is identical in all respects, there is no copyright violation). Furthermore, if your father never registered the song as a copyright, there may be issues as to whether he has standing to enforce it or even get it registered now. He may also run into a laches problem which is like a statute of limitations except that it is more vague than a clearly defined statutory period of time. I assume that you are older than than 20 years old. The short answer is that without a confession from someone that the song is in fact your father's song, you face a task equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest equipt only with cargo shorts and multi-tool.
Re: Your assistance would be forever appreciated in this special matter.
I am an experienced intellectual property attorney and teach intellectual property law to lawyers and law school students.
Call me at (415) 369-9050 if you wish to discuss your case.
Re: Your assistance would be forever appreciated in this special matter.
Claims like this arise all the time; most of them are bogus. There would be a fairly high evidentiary burden to prove that your father actually composed the work, that he sent it to a Nashville agent/etc., that the author of the popular song had access and copied your father's work; and also surmount the legal obstacles caused by your father's failure to register copyright in his work (if he composed it before 1978, there are various ways for the work to have passed into the public domain under then-applicable copyright law).
Recognition, of course, is different from pursuing a lawsuit and obtaining legal ownership of the copyright; perhaps you can interest one of the trade journalists in the story.
Best wishes,
LDWG
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