2010/10/13

How Michael Jackson Saved Sesame Street

http://toughpigs.com/uploaded_images/Oscarjacko-735589.jpg

For all of the musical parodies that Sesame Street produced, very few of them resembled the original song enough to warrant legal action.
 
In the early 1980s, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) was sued for $5.5 million by the Northern Songs, owners of the Beatles catalogue, who said the song “Letter B”, performed by the Sesame Street Beetles, had the unfortunate distinction of being too similar to the original “Let It Be.”


However (thankfully), before the case went to trial, Michael Jackson purchased the Beatles catalog. Mike, also, decided not to pursue legal action, and CTW was only fined $50, which songwriter Christopher Cerf paid out of his own pocket.

 
*Words sourced at Tough Pigs + Mental Floss; fact-checked & reworded by yours truly.






Image        Hosted by ImageShack.us

Dis-klā-mər

U.S. Code Title 17 § 107 permits copyrighted material to be used under the "fair use" doctrine without any permission from the copyright owner. Albeit, as far as these files are concerned, they are clips and/or low quality reproductions of material. Therefore, they should not be used as substitutes for retail copies of the material contained within.
No currency or materials in-lieu of same has changed hands during the download and/or distribution of these files. No monetary reward is expected and/or accepted for the content of these files. No pretense has been, nor will ever be, made that these files and their contents have ever been, or ever will be, of retailable quality.
Nevertheless, any artist or legal copyright owner who would rather not see their music or other creations on this blog, please leave a comment with a valid e-mail address and I will hastily respond accordingly.
If you do download any music or any other copyrighted material(s), please delete download within 24 hrs and purchase the material(s) from a retailer.

Support the artist and buy from legitamate retailers such as:

Dusty Groove, Stones Throw & Hip-O Select
Since Earth Day: 2008/04/22
Never incautious of corporate branding per Adbrite and Google AdSense accordingly, Fulsome does not endorse Ad:Free Blog.
As a consequence all adverts have been perennially demounted.