mickwest1

Many thanks John will send shortly - I'm not in the MU - and will have to think about the legal thing - something else I just discovered is that from 1978 there is a 35 year copyright reversion for writers regardless of contracts - ( in the US at least - not sure if it applies to UK) - so the first wave will be next year - but guess what - my contracts are '76 and '77 - dohhhh!! - although there is some sort of renewal thing after 28 years apparently And yes I will contact PRS and see what they say many thanks again Mick PS: these posts are not coming through on my email - should they be?

Thanks guys - Tom - take your point and fear you are right - It would be nice though to at least have an idea of where I stand - which I'm hoping maybe some of you guys will have some experience of John - the 3+2 years was for the "blanket" contract - 3 years with a 2 year option -( which he took up purely out of spite ) it would be great to null the contract because of the non payment of the five pence - but how would I prove not receiving it ?- I think unfortunately though that signing the contract acknowledged the payment The songs all had individual contracts that had no expiry time mentioned - would be great though if it turned out they were only valid for 5 years also The contract being unenforceable sounds like a good way to go - also another publisher said to me that 5 years without any activity is generally considered to be grounds for cancellation - would be nice to confirm that would you consider having a look if I scan a contract and post it up? PS: these songs are registered with PRS - I managed to "strike off" the publisher on some of them but they have now changed the system and it looks like you can no longer do that - I don't know if that actually has any effect anyway - again any help gratefully received Thanks very much for replying guys - I hope I can be of help to someone at some point cheers Mick

by the way - I didn't receive any money or advances - not even the five pence stated on the contracts!!

Hi guys I'm a "mature" songwriter and musician in England In the seventies I signed a really bad publishing deal for 3 + 2 years - including song deals for lots of my stuff The publisher was not a nice guy - he did get a recording deal and did a bit of promotion on some of my songs - but it all came to nothing - and I fell out big time with him after a year or so when I found he was being dishonest about certain things As far as I can see the publishing contracts are totally one sided and have no cut-off time - my question is - given that there has been no activity since then - can these still be considered valid - or at least would it be easy to render them invalid? Would appreciate any help anyone can offer on this - I could put up a copy of a contract if that's allowed many thanks in advance Mick