[Harp-L] Possible apology to Todd Slobin

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

didn'tMr Slobin has informed me that people who participated in their 
song contest retained all rights to their music.

I have to presume I was wrong, and if I was I'll make a fuller apology 
after I research the original request for music.

So, partial apology for now. It is VERY possible that I was wrong.

But it's easy enough to go into the archive and find the original posts.

I'll go looking in the next few days, but if anyone else has the time to 
check on their original invitation, please post the quotes.

Again, I don't doubt the possibility that my memory has been faulty, and 
I'll make a very serious apology if I've been wrong.

in my memory I also recall that I complained about the demand for all 
rights back at the original time of the contest, and I do not recall 
reading any denial back then.  My memory is that the filmmakers never 
denied it back then, and instead avoided any mention of this in their 
responses to posters who, like me, didn't like the terms of his 'contest'.

But my memory could EASILY be wrong.


Mr. Slobin informs me that he is in the red on the project, and likely 
may always be. I doubt he EVER expected to get rich from his labor of 
love, which is clearly what this film is.

He also let me know that his group has donated harmonicas and money to 
organizations.

He informs me that he has sponsored shows.  If that means that players 
got paid, then boy am I wrong.

But if players didn't get paid, I'm not quite as wrong.

If players got paid by Mr. Slobin, and those players do not make a habit 
of playing for free, then we have a good lesson on how to get paid: 
don't work for free.  Your grocer sure doesn't, and even when he was 
young and starting out they had to pay him.


I certainly do not doubt Mr. Slobin's assertion to me that the musicians 
who submitted their music have retained all rights here in 2013.

Let's just have a look in the archive to see what the original request was.

I may have said a bunch of lousy and inaccurate things about his 
endeavor, and if that is so we'll know soon enough because I'll be the 
one who admits it.

And if it's true that he originally made the surrender of rights a 
condition of being able to submit music to his contest, and that 
requirement was then rescinded, then I congratulate him on eventually 
doing the right thing.

But if he demanded all rights back in the day, I will give my memory a 
pat on the back.

We'll see.

I'll probably apologize to him more anyway because in the end he made a 
movie with the best intentions.

And I heard it's good.