Can I get a second opinion on this one? (Lawyers?)

[tomEisenbraun]

Okay, so Coldplay is hosting this Opening Act contest. http://www.coldplayontour.com/

You upload a video fo you and/or your band to Youtube, submit it to your respective contest, and hit Go. Before committing to submitting, I decided that, since this is my intellectual property and my own creation, I'd like to see what's up in the legal department. There's quite few disconcerting things that I'd like your opinion on. Maybe I'm just a bit wary, since I don't know how to speak business/legal, but in the ridiculous event that I were to win, this is stuff I'd have to deal with (or any other good soul, potentially, for that matter...).

The juicy stuff, I've bolded. The extra juicy is italicized as well as bolded. Can anyone tell me if this is what I think means?

GRANT OF RIGHTS:
By entering this Contest, you grant to Capitol a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, right and royalty-free license to use your submission, for any purpose including, but not limited to the posting, performance and use of your submission, your band's name and, except if otherwise  prohibited by law, each of your respective band members' first and/or last names, hometown, place of residence, photo(s), voice and/or likeness, on television, radio, publications and the Internet, including on Capitol's respective websites for any purposes including without limitation, making them available for download.  By entering this Contest, you agree:

(i) that Capitol has the right to use your submission in any and all media in and in connection with promotion, publicity, marketing and advertising for Capitol, Coldplay and this Contest or other promotions by Capitol as Capitol sees fit without any further attribution, notification or compensation to you;

(ii) [size=14]that Capitol, in Capitol's sole discretion, may edit, adapt, composite, mix, remix, morph, scan, duplicate, alter and/or otherwise modify and commercially exploit your submission, in whole or in part, without any restrictions as to changes, for publication or for any other purpose which Capitol deems necessary or desirable, including, without limitation, in future publicity and advertising for Capitol's products and/or services, as well as on a compilation album; [/size]

(iii) that Capitol shall have no obligation (express or implied) to use your submission in any manner and you shall not be entitled to any damages or other relief by reason of Capitol's use or non-use of your submission;

(iv) to be bound by these official rules and the decisions of the judges;

(e) that you may be contacted by Capitol by telephone, mail or email regarding this Contest,

(v) that you are not presently signed to any label or publisher under any exclusive agreements and/or other contractual arrangements and not members of any band that is presently signed to any label or publisher under any exclusive agreements and/or other contractual arrangement and

(vi) to indemnify and hold Capitol harmless from any and all claims, demands, causes of action and judgments (including attorney's fees, court costs and expert's fees) arising out of relating to any breach by you of the terms and conditions of these rules, including the representations and warranties made herein.  

By entering this Contest, you agree to sign and deliver to Capitol such documents as Capitol may reasonably require to effectuate the rights granted herein.

I don't love the sound of those too much, but they're all somewhat agreeable except for part (iii). This turns from getting to open for a great band to handing my material over to a record label for their infinite right to cut/edit/mishandle/maim as they see fit? Is that a good deal?

Here's the serious kicker, though:

RECORDING OPTION:  
By entering this Contest, you hereby grant to Capitol the irrevocable and exclusive option (the "Recording Option") to enter into an agreement with you ("Recording Agreement") that will provide for an option on Capitol's part to record demo recordings with you and/or enter into a long-term exclusive artist agreement with you.  The Recording Option may be exercised by Capitol giving you written notice at any time before the end of the Option Exercise Period.  The "Option Exercise Period" means the period commencing on the date on which your entry is submitted and ending on the date 60 business days after the winner of the competition is announced.  

The Recording Agreement will provide for an approved budget ("Recording Budget") of approximately $5,000 (USD), to be administered by Capitol under the demo recording deal, or approximately $100,000 (USD) per album, to be administered by Capitol under the long-term exclusive artist deal, and will also contain certain royalty provisions and other terms and conditions commensurate with those contained in Capitol's standard Recording Agreement for new artists.  The applicable Recording Budget includes the approximate minimal costs for associated activities which activities might include, but are not limited to, engineering, programming, arrangement, rehearsals, recording, overdubbing, duplication, mixing, remixing, mastering, media transfers, production, post production, etc., and studio recording and production time reasonably sufficient to produce the required audio track(s) at a recording studio located in New York, New York, or other recording location in the U.S. as designated by Capitol, and at times mutually agreed upon by the respective parties.

As part of the Recording Agreement you must agree to and must irrevocably assign and transfer to Capitol, all rights, title, and interest in your submission, including without limitation, all sound recording copyrights therein, pursuant to any demo recording contract as executed between or among the parties, and to [size=14]forever waive and agree never to assert any and all so-called moral rights they may have or be entitled to in respect of your submission.[/size]

Travel to production studio facilities, including all travel expenses, are your sole responsibility, and each of its respective members, and will not be reimbursed to you under any circumstances by Capitol.

What the hell?! Does that mean that now, or any time in the future, if Capitol decided to record me, I'd have no say over the future of the demos, copyrights, or rerecording of that material? Am I reading that correctly?

I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who knows how to read this stuff, but it sounds like winning this competition to open for Coldplay could be more of a curse for the winner if they have any interest in the freedom of their material. I probably wouldn't even be allowed to manage my own mySpace, would I? I'd love to be told I'm wrong, but if not--no way in hell am I entering.

[Angry Ewok]

Royalty-free license without even a flat rate to appease is a deal breaker for me. The long-term exclusive artist deal sounds like a way for them to lock you into the back pocket from accepting a better deal from someone else... but it doesn't mean you'll get a contract from them in the meantime, either. Hell, Tom, it doesn't even mean you'll win the contest.

This sentence in particular bothers me :

Capitol, in Capitol's sole discretion, may edit, adapt, composite, mix, remix, morph, scan, duplicate, alter and otherwise modify and commercially exploit your submission [...] without any restrictions as to changes, for publication or for any other purpose which Capitol deems necessary or desirable [...]

It's up to you to decide if the chance of being selected and seeing the benefits of exposure by opening for an absolutely huge act is a fair trade for your rights to be "forever waived" and your art to be prostituted and perhaps even mutilated at someone else's sole discretion.

I might be able to trade some rights for the exposure, but I wouldn't for the chance at exposure no matter how much I liked my chances.

[Penny Lane]

it looks like a standard contract of that kind, unfortunately, it means pretty much what you think it does regarding that submission at least.  that material becomes their product-meaning if you ever wanted to use that material again, you'd have to get their permission since they own it (law student not lawyer, though!!) just my .02 -i could be wrong

[BH]

What if you enter under a band name.  They should only control that name and the music you entered.  You could break ties with them just by changing you band name?

[tomEisenbraun]

Thanks guys.

I definitely agree, Brad. I thought, hell, it'd be cool to see what happened, but reading that stuff, I'd rather not win.

The crazy thing is, they even set up a time frame window to where, if they decide they want you, you have to agree. You don't get to change your mind about wanting to sign with them. You HAVE signed to them. That's pretty messed.

When the music business actually starts taking action against the music transcending the business, it becomes glaringly obvious that there's a fatal flaw in the entire way they're structured...

[Angry Ewok]

When the music business actually starts taking action against the music transcending the business, it becomes glaringly obvious that there's a fatal flaw in the entire way they're structured...

Just ask John Fogerty.

[The DARK]

I thought I knew the record industry, but that is one of the most fucked-up things I have ever read.

[tomEisenbraun]

Would you guys be up for starting some sort of petition/awareness thing to get the word out on this garbage and save some talented kids' asses in the process?

[The DARK]

Absolutely.

[vespachick]

Would you guys be up for starting some sort of petition/awareness thing to get the word out on this garbage and save some talented kids' asses in the process?

The thing is, Capitol has lawyers up the wahzoo.  This contract has been honed to the point that you couldn't piss a song out of your schnozz without them getting the rights to it. The beauty of law is that there is always an addendum to file or a VERY small loophole that you MIGHT be able to pull an argument out of. But these guys know they have nothing to lose and they essentially have you by the huevos.  It's all ridiculous big brother type of shite.  Strike out the parts you don't agree to, initial it where you've done so, and sign it.  Simple.  You probably won't win because of doing so but at least they'll know you're not an idiot...  Later you can claim you weren't represented by counsel nor do you speak nor read English with a reasonable amount of understanding.  This particular point should bode well if they have read any of your posts here. ;D :D ;)

[tomEisenbraun]

Would you guys be up for starting some sort of petition/awareness thing to get the word out on this garbage and save some talented kids' asses in the process?

The thing is, Capitol has lawyers up the wahzoo.  This contract has been honed to the point that you couldn't piss a song out of your schnozz without them getting the rights to it. The beauty of law is that there is always an addendum to file or a VERY small loophole that you MIGHT be able to pull an argument out of. But these guys know they have nothing to lose and they essentially have you by the huevos.  It's all ridiculous big brother type of shite.  Strike out the parts you don't agree to, initial it where you've done so, and sign it.  Simple.  You probably won't win because of doing so but at least they'll know you're not an idiot...  Later you can claim you weren't represented by counsel nor do you speak nor read English with a reasonable amount of understanding.  This particular point should bode well if they have read any of your posts here. ;D :D ;)

Haha, there's no way in hell I'd even try to get involved with litigation there. Plus, the music I make doesn't pander toward corporate interests too terribly well.

What I meant though, is that it might not be terrible to make a big bunch of noise around different internet circles about bullshit hide-away legal stuff like this. It really is a sounding off within the music business world that this company doesn't do what its artists need it to do. Seriously, if they need protection against their own artists leaving them, what are they doing wrong?

The way I see it is that it's like an attendance policy in college courses: You know the class sucks a whole lot of ass, and your teacher knows you know it, so he/she sets up an attendance policy to Fail your ass for not showing up. If they were an incredible teacher, you'd be there whether or not they had an attendance policy. And more often than not, an incredible teacher won't enforce one: They know their students really give a crap about the class, and understand that it's not an affront to them to not show upshitIstartedwritingaboutthewrongthing....

Anyways, it's basically the same as forced attendance. "Hey! This'll sound awesome at first but then we're really going to limit your artistic freedom and you'll want all your music back but you signed it all away to us before we let you in on any of this--sound good? Great."

Bullshit.

There's not room for that kind of garbage any more. Damn I need to get in to music business to help be a model for who shit ought to be done...

[Penny Lane]

Coldplay and their record label are giving undiscovered bands the chance to 'open' for the group in San Jose, Chicago, Philly, Hartford, Washington D.C. and Boston by entering an online contest.

To enter, bands need to submit an original song performance via YouTube.

For those of you who are considering the contest — read the contest rules and fine print closely.

You could see your YouTube performance being used in ways you're not happy with and you won't be able to do anything about it!

There's even a line in the rules that says that Coldplay's record company can place your band's song on a compilation album and they wouldn't be required to pay up for usage.

It gets worse.

By submitting your bands' performance of an original song, Coldplay's record people have the exclusive option to sign your band to what appears to be a crappy record deal.

Is playing with Coldplay really worth giving up even an ounce of control over your original material?

Think about it hard!

[The DARK]

This probably was a good idea started out through the band and ended up as corporate bullshit through EMI.

[AMightyCaporal]

the nice thing is, with the internet and all- your music can get out there.  then, when you get so big it will be the record labels begging to have you sign with them, not the other way around

[tomEisenbraun]

Coldplay and their record label are giving undiscovered bands the chance to 'open' for the group in San Jose, Chicago, Philly, Hartford, Washington D.C. and Boston by entering an online contest.

To enter, bands need to submit an original song performance via YouTube.

For those of you who are considering the contest — read the contest rules and fine print closely.

You could see your YouTube performance being used in ways you're not happy with and you won't be able to do anything about it!

There's even a line in the rules that says that Coldplay's record company can place your band's song on a compilation album and they wouldn't be required to pay up for usage.

It gets worse.

By submitting your bands' performance of an original song, Coldplay's record people have the exclusive option to sign your band to what appears to be a crappy record deal.

Is playing with Coldplay really worth giving up even an ounce of control over your original material?

Think about it hard!

Is that whole thing from perez hilton?

[Penny Lane]

yep--sorry, i should have posted that-

[bowl of soup]

As a lawyer who used to write some of the most restrictive employment contracts since slavery, my opinion is this:  It is what it is.  I'll send you my bill.

[tomEisenbraun]

Yeesh, Soup. That sounds like a tough job to have for a long time. My friend's decided to start making some waves about it.

http://withoutalabel.freeforums.org/stop-the-capitol-records-scam-t15.html

http://www.squidoo.com/withoutalabel/capitolscam

Lots of good info there.