Yvonne Harris Burnley is a lawyer in the Washington, DC area and the manager of her father’s legacy and estate, the legendary jazz tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris. I met Yvonne last year at the National Music Publishers’ Association meeting in New York City where I learned about her many roles in owning and managing copyrights. Over lunch recently we chatted in some detail about her father’s legacy and her role as estate manager.

Today Yvonne discusses the importance of managing her father’s intellectual property and gives some advice for aspiring artists. Yesterday Yvonne spoke with us about growing up with Eddie, and the impact he has made on his family and the music industry. For more information visit, www.eddieharris.com.

To be an exceptional musician, you have to practice conscientiously and longer – Eddieism by Eddie Harris

Lucinda: You father has left a music legacy – which consists of a large music catalogue of over 300 recordings, books and inventions. This means that you and your family have to manage your father’s intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark and patent). How has the Copyright laws affected you and your publishing company?

Yvonne: As Peter M. Thall states in his book, What They’ll Never Tell You About The Music Business (The Myths, the Secrets, the Lies & a Few Truths), music publishers are the most significant contributors to the maintenance of copyrights throughout the world, the most effective lobbyists for those rights and collectively in many ways, they are the engine that makes the entire industry run.

Eddie launched his own publishing company, under the advice of two attorneys, in the early 70’s for the purposes of controlling the copyrights to his created works and maximize his income. He began to register these created works with the Copyright Office, which allowed him to directly receive his royalties. As a copyright owner, his rights were vested in him. And, as a publishing owner he acquired the rights to administer, exploit and nurture his copyrights. The publishing company then received its royalties directly from the issuer and removed the possibility of collection from a co-publisher or other collecting agency. The family of Eddie Harris manages his Estate on behalf of our publishing company.

Under the U.S. Copyright Laws, I have registered Eddie’s musical compositions, published and unpublished and sound recordings, lyrics (musical works) and his music and literary writings. Also, in the realm of intellectual property (body of law that recognizes that the products of people’s minds that are in tangible form have a value to be protected) we have protected his name and likeness under the laws of trademark and have protected the invention of the use of the reed mouthpiece under the laws of patent. Given that there are expiration dates to all of the intellectual property rights, we administratively handle the renewal rights.

The Copyright laws have allowed Eddie to retain the rights to his works and all his derivative works. For example, Eddie was able to transpose a song he had recorded onto a record and print it in a book and subsequently perform it for a movie and later give another person permission to use it. The Copyright laws give protection and recovery to Eddie’s estate through injunctive relief, cease and desist requests and statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Upon Eddie’s demise, Section 304 of the Copyright Act (Duration of Copyrights) began to impact us. The Copyright Term Extension Act created in 1998 allowed a protected copyright work to be protected for the life of the author plus 70 years instead of 50 years. Also, copyrighted works created before 1978 are now protected for 95 years.

Our publishing company utilizes sub-publishers (collect foreign distribution of royalties), licensing agencies (Harry Fox and BMI) to issue licenses to individuals who request the usage of Eddie’s music for television, movies, books (literary) and sound recordings for re-issues or sampling of music.

Although these intellectual property laws are implemented, it amazes me how individuals do not feel the need to pay for the usage of an artist created work.

There have been instances where individuals have wrongfully used my father’s musical works for their own pecuniary gain without giving us prior notice of usage. There’s one example in which a young lady was selling CD’s concerning relationships and how to find a mate. It was discovered that she was using one of Eddie’s compositions as background music. She was issued a cease and desist letter to stop selling the CD because she was unlawfully using the song. At that time, she was required to stop the usage or immediately issue a license for permission to use the work and pay fees for the usage. She had infringed on the use of Eddie’s musical work and Copyright laws became effective since Eddie’s works are registered with the Copyright Office. She issued a response to our legal request and immediately stopped selling the CD’s.

In another instance, an infringement action occurred in which a commercial for a popular cereal brand used one of Eddie’s compositions as background music in the commercial. This was nationwide commercial advertisement. The songwriters of the commercial had infringed on the use of Eddie’s musical work and Copyright laws became effective since Eddie’s works are registered with the Copyright Office. A settlement agreement was reached in which our publishing company was paid for the wrongful usage.

You get out life what you put into it – Quote by Eddie

Lucinda: What is your advice concerning how an artist should manage his own affairs and what is involved in managing an estate?

Yvonne: Whether you are an artist or managing an estate, first and foremost, have your administrative matters in order as noted below:

- Organize your Contracts on an annual basis.
- Delegate your Copyright Registrations on an annual basis.
- Maintain address and current telephone numbers of all the requisite parties you are associated with.
- Maintain a daily log of all parties you speak with and all returned calls and emails (a paper trail is key).
- Understand your rights.
- Immerse yourself in books, CD’s, and DVD’s pertaining to the music business.
- Attend seminars and courses on the subject.
- Ask questions and ask more questions.
- Network.

An artist need not only create music, poetry, write a book or paint a picture to sustain his rights in this business. He needs to understand and implement his rights once he creates his works.

In addition to managing an estate, one should ask himself the following questions:

- How many records have I sold?
- What do the charts state?
- What are your stats on sound scan?
- What are the write-ups saying about you?
- Is my music in demand?
- What have I done lately?

With the music industry constantly changing, you have to keep up and continue to reflect your abilities with the changing times.

Share this:

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 9:24 am by Lucinda M. Dugger and is filed under copyright law, creators, culture, economy, education, piracy, q&a. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.