Sadly today this issue affected you in someway, but John look at it from another view. Say you are a new song writer. You write a few new songs, and some struggling new artist comes along and records a couple of them. He releases an album and it sells a reasonable amount but nothing like a gold or even better platinum volume, he tours like crazy and gains a small but loyal following, a few more albums, a couple more of your songs, and some years later he earns a larger following thru hard work and perseverance. His 4th album goes Platinum out of the gate and he is rocking the music world. His fans love him and his music (some of which is yours) and go back and buy his older albums, great but under your concept, neither of you get anything for that! You and he got paid up front and it is done.

Also the comparision to a guitar or amp is not realistic either. When Fender makes a strat for instance they make a lot of strats that look the same, play basically the same, and anyone with the cash can buy one. there is a constant market for that product. It is totally different from an artistic product that can be shared by copying it like music can. No one can burn a strat to a CD and give to a friend. Noone can download a strat and play it.

Anyway, i understand the frustration, i love to play covers, and the system is not perfect, but if these were our songs, and we had gone through what most artist go through to build their legacies we would want some level of protection.

Interesting discussion to hear others thoughts. I wish things were different, but they are not. Bottom line. as it was said it is very unlikely that anyone gets busted for playing covers for personal enjoyment, or for friends, or even for small parties and private venues.

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