In yet another claim against a component of the music industry, Gail Zappa, widow of the late Frank Zappa, alleges EMusic distributed her husband's songs without licensing the underlying publishing rights, says her lawyer, Yakub Hazzard.

Consequently, she's filed a lawsuit against EMusic in US District Court in Los Angeles over copyright infringement, says Gwendolyn Mariano in a CNET News.com story here.

"In a statement, EMusic said it sold 'a small collection' of Zappa songs on its Web site in 1999 under a licensing deal with Zappa's label Rykodisc, but it pulled the songs about a year ago," says the report. "The company said it has agreed to pay the going rate for the songs and had been negotiating in good faith with the Zappa estate over back royalties when the suit was filed Friday.

" 'It is unfortunate that the Zappa estate has chosen to pursue legal action on an issue that represents such an extremely small dollar amount'," the company wrote in an e-mail.

[Ahhhhhhh. So in Music Land it's the amount, not the act, that counts - Ed]

Last week, EMusic followed the producers of the Grammy Awards by filing a lawsuit against Napster, which is already battling a high-profile case with the Recording Industry Association of America, Mariano points out, adding:

"The Zappa lawsuit seeks damages for alleged infringement of 37 'musical compositions written, composed, arranged and/or performed by the late Frank Zappa,' who died in 1993 at age 52.

"Gail Zappa's attorney said that EMusic licensed the sound recordings from Rykodisc but failed to secure the rights to the underlying songs, owned by the Zappa Family Trust."

Reminds me of piranas, they go into a feedng frenzy and will cannibalize each other...
But, I like that name...Yakub Hazzard..
for some strange reason...I hear music in my head "Just a good ole boy, never meaning no harm...beats all you ever saw, in trouble with the law, since the day they wuz born..."(Voicover now)"...now just about that time, the Duke boys showed up with Cousin Daisy Duke"

~code

And, co-starrng EMusic as Boss Hogg

Code thats copyright infringment, watch out. Someone owns the rights to those lyrics.

lol...I'm claiming Fair Use (and as a side note, if you ever infringe on Robin Hood :Men in Tights, claim "Friar Use" )

Hey Code, Do you think that anything attached to Frank Zappa would have a lawyer with a regular name?

Hey RIAa, what goes around comes around, even in your lame music download site!

lol...surfside you have a point. Frank named his kids Dweezil and Moon Unit, so Yakub Hazzard is mild in comparison

Hey! I'm suprised at you guys! I think that we should have fair use and I also feel that paying a small monthly fee is well worth unlimited downloads! Filesharing is great, don't get me wrong. As a matter of fact, I love it. But if both sides come to an agreement and we do have to pay some money (not a ton of money) then I think sites like Emusic is a good idea. I currently use it and it is very simple and I can find most every band I want. Best of all, greedy gonoRIAA gets none of the royalties. The artists do get paid. All is well. You pay the cost of aprox 3 cds and get unlimited downloads. Celebration. Then again I like obscure punk bands that no one else has heard of (for example: The Fartz, Jodie Foster's Army, Articles Of Faith, Under The Gun, etc). I'd rather pay a small monthly fee then have MP3s outlawed all together.

Let the invasion begin.
-pizzaRIAA

I have a suggestion for boycott-riaa.com. Lately, theres just a LOT of news that comes up, and also spoofs posted etc.

Also sometimes judging from the title its not clear if its really "headline" worthy news for our purposes, (ie if we had a newspaper would it be the headline, or somewhere stuck inside).

Thus, I propose we somehow mark the stories which are most important, and also please mark the spoofs. With all the crazy stuff happening, sometimes its really hard to tell.

Gail Zappa is a notorious bitch when it comes to making sure she squeezes every penny she can from her late husband's work..

She has her ass parked squarely on hundreds of hours of unreleased material that true Zappa fans would love to have access to but she isn't moving.

This is music that would not have much commercial value to her and the Zappa estate because it is only of interest to hardcore Zappa fanatics, of which there are relatively few.

The ironic sad thing is that Frank predicted online distribution in the 80's, he saw it as a way to subvert the corrupt practices of the RIAA by transfering audio tracks via cable TV line to home cassette recorders.

Gail is famous for making friends with Frank's former enemies,(Tipper Gore is now a close family friend). Frank must be reeling in his grave.

I suppose that she is compensating for the fact that neither her nor any of her kids have produced anything of any merit, musical or otherwise.
Better to get fat off of the royalties from Frank's work than accomplish anything worthwhile.

As a long time Zappa admirer, I'm saddened to learn what sort of woman Frank was sleeping next to for all those years,(maybe thats why he cheated on her so much)

by the way Code, you forgot Ahmet and Diva.

I saw Dweezil a few years ago being a shill for Peavey amplifiers, he seemed like a spoiled Californian schlepp.

Last time i saw Ahmet he was hosting some kind of cable gameshow with fighting robots.

And didn't Diva try to record a millenium song and become a teen pop princess?

It's as if the kids never actually listened to their dad's music, they've become the sort of people who snubbed him in high school.

sigh

I agree Shoshidge. I have a Zappa fan for about 18 years now. A wealth of material in Frank's vaults and all we get are retreads of the same stuff over & over. You have to realize that Gail was a groupie who latched onto Frank in the late 60s. She probably doesn't have any other means of survival. And yes Frank is spinning.

Hey pizzariaa, what I want is a pay one price (Monthly access fee), and get all the downloads I want! Pay per download S*CKS, how many times will anyone need to visit (and pay per download) Emusic to fill up a decent sized (30 gig) MP3 player? You could buy a decent used car for that price.

And besides, I as a Zappa fan cannot find any of his rare stuff on Emusic.

shoshidge - you're right...I always think it's sad when you see that the family doesn't seem to measure up...
for example, I was a fan of Ozzie Osbourne back in the Sabbath days, but, even though Jack and his sister seem nice enough I guess (but really spoiled), they are "talently challenged"...same think with Ziggy Marley, who I hoped could carry on Bob's musical legacy...and how about the Sean Lennon thing...I think it comes down to charisma...you can inherit eye color, size, hair, voice tone, etc., but ya just can't inherit that charisma..(ooops, have strayed off topic...sorry

good singin...good songwritting, is not in the blood..as we know.

pizzariaa -- EMusic is owned by Vivendi.

The only way to get your music listed there and offer music for download is to be a member of mp3.com and pay PROMOTION FEES.

Code--add Julian Lennon to your list!!!!

Too

surfside6 -- Emusic IS a flat monthly fee of $9.99 for unlimited downloads.

Yes they're part of the establishment, and the selection is largely second-string stuff (not necessarily a bad thing).

On the other hand they're the only thing closely resembling to an acceptable model.

Well going rate is kinda low... I mean the damage they have done to the market alone is outrageous. I do believe the statutes are ready for a such a thing. Last I heard it was $150,000 per song. Thats $5,550,000. I hope the zappa estate gets every dime.

What's wrong with promo fees? It's just like paying gfor advertisement, isn't it?

Copy my music for personal use and to share with friends all you want...

Hell, I will even give you a FREE CD of our music if you just send me your adress!

but if you make copies and CHARGE anybody for it, then I will get MAD!
(well, you can ask for the price of the blank CD/stamp to mail it/time it took to make the effort/etc. JUST DON'T MAKE ANY PROFFIT FROM IT!)

The RIAA's job was SUPPOSED to be about going after all those damn "bootleggers" who are in fact "pirates" for real. (Not just sharing with friends and thus promoting the artist's work.)

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

http://electricgypsy.iuma.com

This "content providing" stuff DOES get expensive when you are an independent musician... but what the hell, Karma will save us (I hope!)

Hey, indie, is there any way to move your site to another host? Maybe it's just me, but the banner ads on there seemed odd, and I doubt if you agree with them yourself. (like BMG for example)

Weather one likes Zappa's family or not, its her money. The article even says its a "little amount" and leads me to think that now that the artist is dead the label will just the widow. Perhaps the Gail will learn to hate the RIAA enough to post the lost Zappa songs here for free(hey I can dream)

Actually, Zappa ran his own label, I guess Gail runs it now.

Regarding the intersting topic of children carrying on in their parents footsteps...

I think the problem is that while the kids carry the parents genes they generally do not grow up in the same environment.
In Zappa's case, he grew up as a geek and an outcast, I think the insecurity and resentment caused by a rough childhood gives people the ambition to acheive great things.

The Zappa kids, or the Lennon kids, or the Marley kids, might carry the talent, but they grow up privilaged and popular, unlike their "tortured artist" parents.

I guess the lesson to be learned is that if you want your kids to be creative, you have to ensure they don't grow up too happy or well adjusted.

Well-Adjusted is not always a good thing, I agree. (ignores the stares)

Well, this is an interesting twist. Wonder who's next?

Yeah Gail runs the label now---right into the ground.

Barking Pumpkin Records. What about all the OTHER stuff that Zappa did that were legendary and ground breaking? 4track dubbing, synthezing an electric guitar with a keyboard, gawd I bet there are about 5.5 million reasons.. oh wait...that number has been used.
I agree. His widow needs to let loose some of the other Zappa stuff.. anyone have a real copy of "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band".. with Zappa singin about money? I bet THAT bit of studio footage would bring a pretty penny.
I'm guessing this is like what the EFF asked EMI during MusicWars "So if it's low quality it's okay to copy, but if it's high quality it's wrong?"
Code: don't claim fair use! Claim PARODY!!! that's MUCh funnier
ttmmm

When A&E did their Zappa biography, they included some footage of a jam that he held in his studio with the Chieftains, a tuvan throat singing group, and Johnny Guitar Watson.

The ten second clip looked amazing! But do you think we'll ever see or hear the whole thing? Doubtful.

Frank must've recorded it, he recorded everything.

And I don't think he intended for all of this great,(or even not-so-great)stuff to languish on a shelf and deteriorate.

If there ever was a good application for online music distribution it's the Zappa archives, it would be a cheap, efficient way for interested parties to explore his obscure work.....

yes, I know, keep dreaming.

Ok, this is 5 years down the line...you still around shoshidge?