I'd Like to Thank My Lawyer

Let me start out by saying that I've never had anything other than positive experiences with entertainment industry lawyers -- even inviting some to my wedding. But a recurring them at the Grammys last night was the relief from the artists that lawyers had figured out a way to allow art to be created.

The pinnacle of this was the Linkin Park/Jay-Z award, where the band thanked the team of lawyers that made the collaboration possible. It's easy to blame the lawyers. But the system we have created makes them indispensible. Any musician's contract with their label includes a countless number of ways that the artist signs away their right to their current and future works, making mash-ups and other forms of collaboration difficult or nearly impossible, especially between artists from different labels. The answer is simple and obvious: Artists should be the sole owners of rights to their own creations. It is the creative crime of our era that all of our great musicians have had to give away the ownership of their own recordings in order to get those recordings made.

For artists already signed to labels, this is a problem. But for artists still unsigned, there are now some interesting alternatives, like Magnatune, Jamendo, CD Baby and other outlets which will allow you to sell your music -- both digital and physical copies, without selling the rights to the masters.

This is much closer than our current system to the original intent of copyright law, which was to allow artists to control how to disseminate their own art. At some point, an independent artist will sell a million albums without the support of a label, and the music industry monolith will suddenly cease to be relevant. Including the labels, the lawyers, and -- gasp -- the Grammys.

Peace.