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Stella Awards #3: 25 September 2002 www.StellaAwards.com
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In This Issue:
-Silence is Pure Gold
-Stella Short: A Penny Earned
-Reader Letters and Commentary
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SILENCE IS GOLDEN -- FOR SOME
by Randy Cassingham
British musician Mike Batt produced the album Classical Graffiti for
the rock group The Planets. The album had two distinct styles on it, so
Batt decided to put a minute's break between the two sections.
"I thought for my own amusement it would be funny to call it
something, so I called it A Minute's Silence and credited it as track 13,
and put my name as Batt/Cage, as a tongue-in-cheek dig at the John Cage
piece," Batt said.
The Cage piece he refers to is a 1952 "composition" called 4'33", a
"famous" bit of "music" -- 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence -- by
American avant-garde composer John Cage, who died in 1992. Cage was
granted a copyright for 4'33". Batt's acknowledging it, even in a cheeky
way, was a big mistake: Peters Edition, Cage's music publisher, sued Batt
for copyright infringement on behalf of the John Cage Trust, asking for a
quarter of the royalties from Batt's album.
That's right: the lawsuit claimed Batt stole his silence from Cage.
"As my mother said, 'Which bit of his four minutes and 33 seconds are
they claiming you stole?'," Batt said at the time. None of it, he
insisted. "I certainly wasn't quoting his silence. I claim my silence is
original silence." Perhaps in the world of lawsuits, such a claim makes
some sort of logical sense.
When the infringement claim came to light, few thought it could
possibly prevail. Duncan Lamont, a British lawyer specializing in the
music industry, was one expert who rolled his eyes over the squabble. "Is
[Cage's composition] a work? Has it been written down, is it a literary,
artistic or dramatic work? The argument will be there is no work because
there are no notes." If there is "no work", there could be no
infringement and the case would fail.
Batt, too, was feisty. "Has the world gone mad? I'm prepared to do
time rather than pay out," he told the press. "We are talking as much as
100,000 pounds (US$155,000)" in royalties. Besides, he said, "mine is a
much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage
could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."
But just a few months later, Batt was done -- he settled out of court
for an undisclosed six-figure sum, or pretty much what he was afraid he
would have to pay if the suit succeeded. He handed over a check on the
steps of the High Court in London, saying he was "making this gesture of
a payment to the John Cage Trust in recognition of my own personal
respect for John Cage and in recognition of his brave and sometimes
outrageous approach to artistic experimentation in music."
A spokesman for Peters Edition, Cage's publisher, called the payment a
"donation" which was accepted "in good spirit." He said the company had
been ready to go to court to defend the copyright they controlled.
Donation, or extortion payment? You be the judge, but be warned: now
that you know of this case, you really can't afford to be silent about
it.
SOURCES:
1) "'Silent Works' Do Battle", BBC News Online, 17 July 2002
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?03a
2) "Mike Batt Sued over Copyright to Song of Silence", Ananova News, 18
July 2002
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?03b
3) "British Musician to Pay in Lawsuit", Associated Press, 24 September
2002
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?03c
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STELLA SHORT
Rosemary Aquavia, a secretary for the mayor of Naugatuck, Conn., was
reprimanded by her supervisor for personal use of a borough fax machine.
She filed a federal lawsuit against the town for violating her First
Amendment right to free speech. A jury of her peers agreed, and awarded
her one cent in damages. In a post-trial motion, Aquavia appealed to U.S.
District Court Judge Janet Arterton to increase her damages -- to one
dollar. The judge turned down the appeal.
SOURCE: "Penny's Worth of Justice Is All She Gets", Waterbury (Conn.)
Republican-American, 23 September 2002
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?03d
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LETTERS AND COMMENTS
Here it is only the third issue of the True Stella Awards and I've
already made a policy exception! I mean for Stella to be about AMERICAN
lawsuits, yet today's case is British. Still, an American was involved
(even though he's dead). That, plus the whole case is so danged surreal,
I couldn't resist, especially since the Brits reading this will surely
accuse us Yanks of polluting its courts with this sort of case in the
first place. Maybe even rightly so.
Last week's case was about a claim of "negligent infliction of
emotional distress," for which I inexplicably said the acronym was "NEID"
(in some places, but correctly as "NIED" in another). While I appreciate
the people who wrote suggesting that lawyers sure are wacky to put the
letters in the wrong order, the error was indeed mine. I was stressed at
not being able to send or receive mail from my server last week, and was
trying to work the problem with the support staff while at the same time
finishing up writing the issue. They got it fixed BARELY in time for me
to meet my self-imposed deadline to get the issue out -- which meant I
didn't proof the text as much as I like. (Surely that stress/emotional
distress is worth a few hundred thousand from my server provider, eh?)
(Attention attorneys: That was a joke! Please DO NOT send offers of
representation!) (Attention attorneys: THAT was a joke too! Please DO NOT
send irate letters!)
Yesterday I was reminded how important it is to stress the importance
of using real cases to spur discussion of lawsuit abuse. CNN featured the
True Stella Awards web site on the "CNN Live at Daybreak" news, but they
did a rather poor job of it. I didn't actually see that they showed my
web site, but readers said they did, in a discussion between the anchors
and a couple of DJs at a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. (Thanks
MUCH to Mike in Michigan for alerting me to the coverage, and Leo in
Washington for pointing out the transcript for me.)
Here's some excerpted dialogue from the segment, which was introduced
by anchor Catherine Calloway: "You know, I hear you guys have been
talking about the Stella Awards a lot there. We've got to tell everybody
what they are first. It's on the frivolous lawsuits. And we've even got a
Web site that we found on the Stella Awards. What are some of the
lawsuits that stand out in your mind as pretty much ridiculous?" ALISON
(a DJ from the radio station): "Well, there is a woman in Philadelphia, a
Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania $113,000 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her
tail bone. Well, the beverage was on the floor because she threw it at
her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument." CALLAWAY: "Did she
win?" ALISON: "She won. She won $113,000." CALLAWAY: "Oh, my goodness,
that's crazy." ALISON: "Ridiculous." CALLAWAY: "I like the one about the
Winnebago." ALISON: "The Winnebago, there was a man who bought a
Winnebago and apparently it was a 32 foot Winnebago. And on his first
trip home he decided to put it on cruise control and then go back and
make himself some coffee. And then, of course, the Winnebago went off the
road and tipped over and turned over and he sustained some injuries."
CALLAWAY: "He won?" ALISON: "Yes, he won $1,750,000 and he got a new
Winnebago on top of that." CALLAWAY: "Amazing."
What's "amazing" is that these urban legends were held up as examples
of the U.S. legal system gone mad, even though they didn't happen. They
are made up cases -- completely fake. And those VERY CASES are SHOWN as
fake on the same web site they displayed on the screen! Come ON big radio
and TV outlets! Are you going to let a puny little site like mine show
you up on a little thing like getting the facts correct? And if you ARE
going to come to my site so you have something to show the audience, at
least you could mention the URL on the air!
-Bogus Stella winners: http://www.StellaAwards.com/bogus.html
-CNN transcript: http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?03e
New on the site is a statement "about us" to answer the question, what
is the "bias" behind the True Stella Awards? Most "weird lawsuit" sites
are fronts for tort reform organizations. There's nothing wrong with that
-- so long as you understand where they're coming from. But TSA is
different: we're completely independent. MY "bias" is that I want to
entertain readers, and provoke thought and discussion. The page also
clarifies an important advertising policy. (I am amused and amazed that
the ads are selling so well, but then the prices are extra low during
this start-up phase.)
-About us: http://www.StellaAwards.com/aboutus.html
-Ad info: http://www.StellaAwards.com/ads.html
Due to popular demand (OK, OK!), I'm now accepting leads on cases to
feature in the True Stella Awards -- but NOT by e-mail, please! There is
now a submission form at http://www.StellaAwards.com/submit.html which I
would GREATLY prefer you use. We're also working on an archive of recent
issues in case you miss one for any reason, or want to refer back to the
case report when you see a letter about it. That will, with luck, be up
and running next week.
Speaking of letters, an interesting one from Alia in California: "I
positively love your Stella Awards, for an unusual reason: my husband's a
lawyer! He has his own practice and does criminal defense and civil
litigation. Sadly, many of his criminal defense clients (even the guilty
ones) have more integrity than the civil clients. We prefer the
criminals. At least with them we know we are upholding the justice system
and the U.S. Constitution by offering a competent defense! Otherwise, he
spends a third of his day listening to, and then escorting out, folks
looking to make a easy buck on every bump and scrape. Usually, they're
easy to spot. The tough part is when you have a case with good merits and
apparently good facts that actually isn't. As you begin intensive
investigative work on the case (which can't happen without spending some
money first), only then will some discrepancies come to light. Problem
is, by that point you are the attorney of record and only the client or
the judge can release you from the case. Additionally, only the client
(not his or her lawyer) can make a decision to settle, dismiss, etc., so
thank you for referring back to the clients as the ones who are
ultimately responsible for their actions."
Regarding last week's "Short" on the lawyer who sued Delta Airlines
for seating him next to a "fat man" who, the lawyer said, he was
"literally and figuratively married from the right kneecap to the
shoulder for two hours," Lisa Jo in Indiana writes, "I think the 'fat
man' in question should sue for divorce and get half." You'd make an
absolutely *vicious* lawyer, Lisa Jo! :-)
--Randy Cassingham
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Please include your first name and location. Due to volume, we cannot
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SOURCE REFERENCES are kept up-to-date on our server as possible; the URLs
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STELLA AWARDS is a project of "This is True" -- http://www.thisistrue.com
-- and is published by Freelance Communications, PO Box 17326, Boulder
CO 80308 USA.
Copyright 2002 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved.
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