Deceased popstars and the money that is made...

[max_tranmere]

Serious amounts of cash have been made out of Michael Jackson's passing, and all the people who benefit have done everything they can to cash in. Books, special edition albums, DVD's, boxsets, and so on, have all come out. People have been making fortunes out of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain every day since each one of them died and will continue to for ever more.

Now we have the passing of the guy from Boyzone. Watch the group's albums rocket up the charts this week and next, look out for books, old concerts being reissued on DVD, and so on. This all seems wrong to me. The other 4 members of Boyzone and their manager (the guy who is on X-Factor) I have no doubt are genuinely upset by his passing, but will get richer as a result.

I think there should be a law that forbids people from profiting from someone dying in this way, that re-issues, books, and so on, should not be allowed for at least a year from when the person dies - as the increased sales will be because the person has died - and any profits as a result of increased sale of existing material, that happens in the wake of the death, should go to charity.

What do other people think?

[Sarah Kelly]

Im all for charitys benefitting .. and love it when some old biddy ignored by her family for years then proceeds to give ?2m to the Macmillan fund, RSPCA or whatever, ....... Where the Artist wrote/Co wrote anything id like to think their family would benefit from future Royalties,if their will wishes it-baring in mind not every celebrity is a major super star.... Actually quite complex this as, whereas im not keen on large companies benefitting from artists deaths, large companies employ lots of people so need to be profitable....I recently had some young Scally knock on offering cheap Cds and Dvds - multiply him by thousands all over the uk/world, and thats a big hit on profits...ultimately its a fans opportunity to pay homage to their Star and get something they value so again im all for that. Anything NOT involving lawyers(Not dissing any wigged types on here,M"lud) !happy!

[Peter]

Have you seen how Micheal Jacksons "new" song is actually 26 years old, written by Paul Anka?

Just a mistake, obviously, no-one trying to cash in.

[max_tranmere]

What's very strange is every time there is a feauture on the news, about this Boyzone guy having passed away, the people in and around Boyzone make money. They play a few seconds worth of Boyzone material on every news report about it, so that is 24 features a day on Sky News, and the same on the BBC News Channel, then there are the ITN and BBC features on the terrestrial channels, Channel 4 news, and others too. It's weird.

[Peter]

max_tranmere wrote:

> What's very strange is every time there is a feauture on the
> news, about this Boyzone guy having passed away, the people in
> and around Boyzone make money. They play a few seconds worth of
> Boyzone material on every news report about it, so that is 24
> features a day on Sky News, and the same on the BBC News
> Channel, then there are the ITN and BBC features on the
> terrestrial channels, Channel 4 news, and others too. It's
> weird.

You're allowed to play clips of upto 30 secs for the purposes of news reporting without having to make payment. (unless its changed in the last few years)

[Sarah Kelly]

who would know if you didnt pay tho? I mean,with so many channels/stations globally,who polices this,whats the process?

[The Last Word]

max_tranmere wrote:

> Serious amounts of cash have been made out of Michael Jackson's
> passing, and all the people who benefit have done everything
> they can to cash in. Books, special edition albums, DVD's,
> boxsets, and so on, have all come out.

Books, yes, but the rest was widely available anyway. They certainly had to order more copies though.

So far, there's nothing new musically except the nonsense surrounding 'This Is It' (song). Cheers, Sony.

> What do other people think?

It's an industry, isn't it?

[countb]

Good topic this max
The biggest scam of all time was the money kept by Frankie Lymons manager from Frankie and the group,The Teenagers.
He altered the royalty section on their contracts and kept the lot.
Subsequently two of the group sued for unpaid royalties and won about 3 million dollars each I think.
One of em was driving a taxi for a living and still is.