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[b]Cwazy little thing wrote: [/b]
I stand humbly corrected gentlemen -
Im a lawyer, albeit a not yet qualified one, and did some copyright law whilst I was studying, but its been a couple of years, so Im a bit rusty. I decided it was worth having a glance in a text book, and sure enough, S.16 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 gives a copyright owner the exclusive right (amongst others) to perform the work, and anyone else who does that is therefore infringing.
Back to the original topic however, Xfactor is such big business that I imagine Jedward's owners probably got a licence to use the Vanilla Ice version when they were on the show, which in turn will likely feed royalties back to Queen. Unless, again, the whole Xfactor thing is seen as free promotion by artists, in which case perhaps they just let them use whatever, knowing their greatest hits will soon be back in the charts (see Journey!).
Interesting. haha
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Most companies are fine as long as no ones making money from it but you sometimes find a petty case, normally from the Disney corporation.
There’s a famous case of Mike Batt having to pay a "a six-figure sum" because he put a 59 second track of
silence at the end of an album, and the silence was TOO similar to something John Cage had done, which was a track of 4 minutes silence.
But on these broadcasted performances you can bet the record company pays.
I think with cover bands and tribute acts, if they are relatively unknown, they can slip under the radar.
Bigger ones like Gary Mullen’s One night of queen have to pay for the queen / Elvis songs they use.
Anyweay, ICE didn't pay, and got sued. The tv station would have paid for Jedwards cover.
Basically unless it’s in the public domain, you need to pay.
It's very intresting and very rarely fully understood.
emrabt