In 1956 The Teenagers scored a big hit with WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE thanks to Frankie Lymon’s high tenor. The producer from Gee Records lifted the publishing credit from the three young men and the two surviving Teenagers were awarded ownership in 1992, however four years later the Court of Appeals overruled the judgment under the statute of limitations and authorship. There is no such thing as intellectual rights for an artist. Everything belongs to record companies and this point was brought home to a Native American woman in Minnesota who was fined $1.5 million for downloading the following 24 songs belonging to the copyright fiends.

Aerosmith “Cryin'”
Bryan Adams “Somebody”
Def Leppard “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
Destiny’s Child “Bills, Bills, Bills”
Gloria Estefan “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”
Gloria Estefan “Here We Are”
Gloria Estefan “Coming Out of the Dark”
Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”
Green Day “Basket Case”
Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”
Guns N’ Roses “November Rain”
Janet Jackson “Let’s Wait Awhile”
Journey “Don’t Stop Believin'”
Journey “Faithfully”
Linkin Park “One Step Closer”
No Doubt “Different People”
No Doubt “Bathwater”
No Doubt “Hella Good”
Reba McEntire “One Honest Heart”
Richard Marx “Now and Forever”
Sarah McLachlan “Possession”
Sarah McLachlan “Building a Mystery”
Sheryl Crow “Run Baby Run”
Vanessa Williams”Save the Best for Last”

Paying for the songs online would have cost the woman $24

A jury decided the verdict.

None of them were under 30. None of them had ever stolen a thing in their lives. All of them believe in corporate welfare. $1.9 million for 24 songs and not one penny for the authors of WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE from EMI and I suspect that the musicians of the songs purloined by the Minnesota woman will not receive any royalties either.

Call it a hunch.

I don’t download any music or movies, but I once stole two LPs from a discount store at which I was working. Zayres in South Quincy. The records were FREAK OUT by the Mothers of Invention and A DAY IN THE LIFE by Wes Montgomery.I only confess to this crime, since the statute of limitation has run its course.

Neither artist received any money from me, but the discount store had to pay the record company for the LP, so theft only hurts the store. It went out of business in 1990. I had nothing to do with its collapse.

Honest.