I saw this earlier today and, if it is true, I am amazed.
What the hell is wrong with this man? Actually bothering to have pursued this woman in the first place seems very petty but to actually make her pay the Legal Costs beggars belief. I did see that Robert Cray expressed hatred of Clapton a few weeks back but that was not connected with this case.
Eric Clapton is, possibly, even nastier than some people thought!
That is unbelievably petty and mean-spirited even by Clapton’s snake stomach low standards.
Never had any respect or liking for the man or his music since i saw him make his Enoch remarks in Birmingham in Aug ‘76.
Surprised she keeps appealing thus, prospectively, incurring more costs.
Surely a simple cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action if it wasn’t obeyed would have done?
Appealing the court decision suggests not.
I’m tempted to buy it from her at 3400 Euros, then film myself listening to it (I predict I would use the phrase “What is this tedious shit?”) and post it on Clapton’s socials.
Playing devil’s advocate, are we sure that Clapton knows anything about this? I would think it’s his lawyers, and those of his publishers, who have jumped on this so heavy-handedly.
Having said that, he’s a complete shit who stopped being a relevance with his Enoch Powell support.
No, I think you’re right, he probably didn’t know anything about this, but then when was the last time he knew anything about anything? 1964?
Clapton is an appalling piece of work, and I’ve never understood any of the praise heaped upon him. Blues, my arse. Westlife are more blues.
And don’t me any of that collaboration bollocks… if I want B.B. King I go for early B.B. King, not B.B. King with his millionaire (racist) mate a million years later. Who cares about that?
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Wonderful album, but released in 1970 so maybe you haven’t heard it.
Westlife are more blues. You really do make some very silly statements.
And Blue are more Westlifes
(eh?)
If this doesn’t smoke out our old chum from Perth nothing will.
BB King was absolutely boss in the fifties, later he became a bit too….. Later
Also playing Devils advocate- the article takes great pains to stress his ‘vaccine hesitancy’ which has nothng to do with the story at all. In fact he had the vaccine and had a bad reaction to it.
Like Niall I think he probably didnt know abything about it but his lawyers are acting like complete tools. I dont like his views at all but that doesnt mean I have to change my mind about some of his nusic I have liked in the past.
Well said.
How about some cancel culture on wife beating Miles Davis?
Think most if not all of us are guilty of exercising double standards on issues like this – I know I am.
“Artists” we respect/revere (Miles, Page, Townshend, Bowie, etc) tend to get a free pass for their actual or long-rumoured dodgy past behaviour/associations.
“Performers” who we don’t particularly care for or whose work is less culturally significant on the other hand get excoriated (Glitter, Watkins, Kelly et al)
Nope. A tool is a tool however “cool” we are told to think they are. On the other hand “Rock n Roll (part one)” is still a fantastic song.
Fantastic record rather than a fantastic song. Part 2 is even better. (and even less of a song)
Good point.
It is one thing to excoriate certain artists that are not to your taste. Revisionism as to their musical contribution is another thing.
I don’t think what e.g. Watkins did would ever be excused by one liking the artist that did such appalling acts
@dai I don’t know who ‘Watkins’ is and what he or she did. Can you please enlighten me? It may make sense when I know but I have a mental block.
Ian Watkins, Lost Prophets. Suggest you google it, not going to write here what he did
The Daily Star report of Watkins included his picture.
Only problem was it was a picture of Ian “H” Watkins from Steps
Turning Tragedy into farce.
In the Get Back film, when George walks out, John suggests getting Clapton in.
Makes you wonder how that would have worked out if Clappo completely replaced George.
John, Paul, Ringo – “It’s Billy Preston! Great! He’s just what we need!”
Clappo – “Hey, well, hmmm – I’m not so sure guys…I know this local guy called Bobby Crush…”
@Black-Celebration
More a case of
John, Paul, Ringo -“You OK with Billy being a black guy, Eric?”
Clappo – “Oh he’s alright, it’s all of the other coloureds I’m worried about…”
Well, Lennon looked fairly green in Get Back Part 1…
Just before or after Macca is singing “No Pakistanis”? (A spoof about Enoch Powell’s views)
The “devil’s advocate” post above are correct. A couple of years ago an EU court ruled that it’s illegal to re-sell bootleg CDs (or grey market discs like those “radio broadcasts” that seem to be mostly manufactured in Luxemburg…), even if you don’t know it’s a bootleg. In some cases you would have to be a business insider to know for sure: licenses run out, record company sell catalogs to other companies, etc.
E-Bay in Germany regularly reminds customers of this bizarre situation, but many people just ignore this on the grounds of »if it’s on sale at the flea market or in a second-hand shop, why can’t I post it on t’ internet?”
It’s not even the record companies who sue, it’s the Phono Association, a top-level association of music publishing and royalties collecting companies. To show the level of weirdness in this, there was a similar court case against someone re-selling a »Sticky Fingers« CD from WEA (the catalog has moved to Universal, so it’s apparently illegal to privately flog the old versions…).
And yes, the »Bild« newspaper’s real focus is Clapton’s stance regarding Corona measures.
That Sticky Fingers example you cite is definitely weird.
Thanks Fatima.
I don’t think we should target Luxembourg – there would be nothing left of their economy if they stopped producing dodgy cd’s.
Oh Fatima, coming in here with your knowledge and facts and perspective an’ shit… you should know better…
Interesting that this version in The Independent has ‘Clapton wins’ and ‘Clapton brought the case’ long before mentioning that ‘an injunction was issued on Clapton’s behalf.’ Perhaps if he wasn’t such a dick in other areas he’d have got a more sympathetic press on this.
Old time Afterworders will be delighted with the reference to the ‘WTS’
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/eric-clapton-bootleg-cd-ebay-b1977471.html
What’s the “WTS”? Sorry for being slow on the uptake! I’m usually all right with Afterword in-jokes. I know he was excellent in Twin Peaks.
Beatles = HJHM
Clapton = WTS
Wonderful tonight singer.
I’d have gone with Layla hitmaker. Maybe Tears In Heaven or I shot the sheriff even though the latter is not his.
Aaah, all is revealed. Of course.
Jack Bruce would be the SWLABRS, or possibly the NSUS
And Ginger the PRAWHS
Except that he didn’t actually sing it. PRAWHR.
MLS, though.
And the BCHM.
(I like that song. Genuinely)
I still need another few minutes.
@Junior-Wells
@Gary
You’ll never get it – probably because WH is actually one word and not two
People say “t’internet” in Germany? This changes everything!
Achtung, Chuck!
Knoblauch bread?
Not while I’m on duty, though it’s awfully civil of you to enquire.
‘appen! Schpitfeuer!!
That Sticky Fingers thing is fantastic.
Whenever Mrs F looks at my record collection and suggests I sell some, I can change my plea from “don’t want to” to “it would be illegal”.
This story is bullshit.
There’s no way eleven euros is as little at £8.45.
I’m fairly sure that if you have a claim for £10 in the UK it wouldn’t get anywhere near a court. How much does it cost to take a case to court and how much do his lawyers charge per hour ffs? It seems too ridiculous to be true.
What I find hard to understand is why the lawyers (or Clapton) would be bothered.
There is so much stuff out in cyberspace that can be downloaded for free, that the market for physical bootlegs has to be extremely limited.
I have just looked at one torrent site and it has 466 Clapton bootlegs, plus another 50 odd Cream and Derek & Dominos. There may be duplication, but nonetheless bootleg sales aren’t going to affect his income stream in any way.
@Carl
Have a read of Fatima’s post, above. It explains it cogently.
I am no fan of Eric Clapton’s.
However, copying and giving stuff away is not the same thing at all as copying and selling it.
There’s loads of unreleased Clapton live concerts available on free bittorrent sites and he and his people don’t seem at all bothered by it.
When someone is looking to get a financial return, no matter how small, the legal people tend to get involved to protect THEIR right to monetise it, if they so wish.
If they didn’t act when the sale was discovered, it might be argued at a later date that they no longer wanted the rights to the recording(s) in question.
As for the award of costs. By continuing to fight when taken to court, she escalated the costs substantially. Why would a commercial operation just write court costs off if they could recoup them? They are in business to make money, when all is said and done.
I had assumed that this may have had little to do with Clapton or his management. But that may not be so
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/17/eric-clapton-wins-legal-case-against-woman-selling-bootleg-live-cd-for-845
In the Guardian article Clapton’s manager is quoted, »Along with a number of other major artists and record companies, over a number of years Eric Clapton has, through German lawyers, successfully pursued hundreds of bootleg cases in the German courts under routine German copyright procedures.« These »routine procedures« are the (rather random) cases the German Phono Association are pursuing. Does anyone really think old Eric sits at the computer at night, googling internet auction sites for his own recordings?
If you want to see the actual CD the woman has sold – look here:
https://www.bild.de/regional/duesseldorf/duesseldorf-aktuell/wegen-cd-bei-ebay-eric-clapton-zerrt-frau-aus-ratingen-vor-gericht-78340400.bild.html
If you ask me, anyone buying a CD with such a cover should be sued immediately.
Oh, lordy. Straight out of Word/Publisher/Powerpoint. Still, no Comic Sans font…
Reasonably-prominent artists don’t need to go trawling for bootlegs themselves. There are music-biz equivalents of the Ambulance-Chaser lawyers of old, who will do the trawling and the prosecuting for them, for a cut of the proceeds.
The really unscrupulous ones may illegally claim the rights to something for themselves and prosecute, if the artist isn’t interested in pursuing the matter.
Argh my eyes.
I’ve got that CD. So sue me, motherf*ckers!
The Germans seem to like those funny little double-arrow things: » and «.
You see them everywhere in German texts. Bizarre.
Chevrons. I asked the barber to put some in my hair. He looked askance.
On Radio 4 news… you knew this story had legs… she has had to pay the £3,000 or whatever it is… dreadful publicity for the “blues” man… and brings up the thorny subject of him being a “racist bastard” (most realised, of course, from a bootleg live recording – I’d have kept all those recordings r.e.a.l.l.y. q.u.i.e.t.) whose whole career has been forged on the work of poorly paid, but infinitely more talented, black men.
‘corse, I wouldn’t say that.
First 3 Yardbirds’ 45s are alright.
Bit of a non-story IMO. As unpleasant as EC appears to be from his Covid postings and self-pitying autobiography, this is a routine infringement picked up in Germany where they take such things seriously. The meeja knows he’s fair game right now (unless you’re a ruddy nutter, to quote Paul Merton), so are piling on with glee.
Not delighted that guitar.com, source of the OP story, have ceased print production (I was a subscriber) and gone down a click-baity direction online. That’s the cold economic reality in these hard times, I know, but I don’t have to like it.
Also, from the Guardian article:
‘ In response to a standard letter from Clapton’s German legal team, the woman replied: “I object and ask you not to harass or contact me any further”, and told them “feel free to file a lawsuit if you insist on the demands”.’
So they did. Brought it on herself really.
Mazzy channels the spirit of The Afterword. https://youtu.be/IHrP6f5T39I
He fails entirely to get the point. It’s the SELLING of the bootleg that was objected to. Then when requested to remove the item from sale she got on her freetard high horse and pretty much DARED them to prosecute. So they did.
His mention of Grateful Dead tape-trading is pretty much irrelevant, as the Dead allowed and even encouraged it, but under controlled circumstances.
There are loads of Clapton live recordings in circulation and Eric and his people don’t seem to care, as long as they are only exchanged or given away and not sold.
I’m not a Clapton fan myself. Quite apart from his pretty odious views I think John Peel’s remark about him was correct. Peel thought Eric was a good guitar player but he wished Eric didn’t sound so polite while he was doing it.
I have no Clapton recordings except the Cream recordings of the time, which I don’t listen to any more because they are so badly Of Their Time.
Re. »It’s the SELLING of the bootleg that was objected to. «
It wasn’t »objected to« – it’s illegal if you follow the letter of the law in the EU. (A silly law, of course, and everyone knows that you can’t control it, so the industry tries to pick one here and there in the hope that everyone will be scared.)
(BTW – who’s that idiot in the video?)
This is as good a spot as any to advise that the arist formerly known as Johnny Concheroo nee Mojo Working has done a 2 part series on the British blues rock scene and albums influential at the time.
Beano album odds on to come in numero uno
https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2021/12/woke-up-this-morning-top-40-british.html
Well isn’t this a fucking joke.
Headline: Eric Clapton backtracks
Then after many paragraphs thry say Eric Clapton … “upon learning”.
So he had no idea/involvement in the action but dont let that get in the road of a cancel culture kicking
Yep. That’s about the long and short of it. Beano album, D & The Ds and various early stuff will always have a place on my cd player.