There are a lot of songwriter/publisher related disputes that are handled through arbitration. The number of infringement cases that actually go to court is small, usually either when both parties are adamant in their position beyond the point of common sense, or the more frequent frivolous cases, where you're (quite frankly) dealing with nut jobs. I had a guy try to sue me a few years back because we had written the same title. His copyright date was 2006, and I got the "you stole my song" letters. I pointed out that MY song was not only written/copyrighted in 1994, it had been on a 1999 Trace Adkins album. His reply was "well you must've known I was planning on writing it". Some people just can't be reasoned with. Conversely, I know of a LOT of legitimate infringements that were handled privately, that were never made public. The infringing writer basically had an "oh crap!" moment, approached the original creator and said "let me make this right". Most of the cases you read about are the gray area cases, or the ones such as I described earlier above.

Going to trial would be the last thing I would ever want to do, regardless of which side of the infringement I happened to be on. It's expensive, stressful, and the only ones who come out ahead are the lawyers.

I would prefer to see a mandatory arbitration process implemented - going to court would be a last resort instead of step one. Not realistic maybe, but if courts/juries continue to get it wrong, something is going to have to be adjusted.

Last edited by Roger Brown; 08/06/19 04:47 AM.
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