If you go to a Sure Entertainment concert here they start off, or did last year, with dancers and an (illegal) broadcast of the Tornadoes Telstar, of course nobody knows that's what it is in Thailand. It was the first number one hit in the USA for a UK group in 1962, before the Beatles era, recorded by the eccentric Joe Meek in his kitchen. Joe turned down not only the Beatles but Tom Jones and Rod Stewart. His success did not keep up with the changing times and it was the copyrite for Telstar which partly lead to his death. He was taken to court by a French company who claimed Meek had copied a soundtrack, the case dragged on for years with royalties suspended. Meek, beset with debt from no royalties and court costs killed himself and his landlady in 1967. The French lost the copyrite case a few weeks latter and the substantial royalties which would have seen Meek in the clear became available.

The best things in life are free.

So if the downloads are free and the concerts are free, err where is the income? Artists do not even get paid for all TV appearances or radio concerts, that is seen as publicity for them, they may get 2k expenses. On some shows they (the record company) has to pay for them to be on a show.

Of course artists are paid for most appearances, but there are just not enough concerts for all of them to get a good income from them without album sales, and concerts are very hard work all the time. Seem to me people love music, but don't really want to pay for it, love the singers but expect them to knock themselves out with gruelling concert schedules full time. I think some would change their minds if they were in the performers shoes.

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

Really? Well the reason is that these companies have global patents are are protected under copyright law. They will report it to the police but never put themselves at risk by visiting or tracking down the factories that make it, you could end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Just to stop the confusion here:

- a patent protects a technical solution, an invention and is granted after an examination procedure. The term is usually 20 years

- copyright protects works of art and protection starts with the publication of the work and ends 70 years after the author's death.

- and there are some further intellectual property rights, such as trademarks, design etc.

Let's not mix up things!