Intellectual Property Law

The IPKat learns from the Daily Telegraph that a Munich court has decided that the heirs of Karl Ganzer, who wrote Kufstien Song, a German yodelling song containing the yodel "Holla-räe-di-ri, di-ri, di-ri" and once voted the best German song of all time, are entitled to the royalties, and not the song's publisher. The publisher argued that he 'jazzed up' the song, and therefore was entitled to a cut. What clinched it was a 1980s document where the publisher admitted that Ganzer was the author of the song.

The IPKat wishes he'd been a fly on the wall at the trial. All that yodelling... He notes though that even though this may be a highly popular song, the royalties only seem to amount to £3,000 per annum.

Author's own music taken down by YouTube

Proof that the silly season is upon us - the Mirror reports that the music producer Calvin Harris is not a happy bunny after the BPI arranged for YouTube to remove his own music from his YouTube account , citing copyright infringement. He has not kept his feelings to himself, but the IPKat won't report precisely what he said.

Oh dear..says the IPKat

Full post as published by IPKat on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).