Comments on: Just typical

By: mat555

mat555 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:30:56 +0000

Daphne do you think pbs/media.link and all other radio/tv stations in malta work differently from super one?

[Daphne – Give some examples, please.]

By: Luca

Luca — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:39:10 +0000

@ M. Mifsud

I know I can read the pieces on internet, in fact that’s what I normally do. Nevertheless, my parents prefer to have the paper at home, so they just buy it. They purchase The Independent for Daphne and The Times for the news. (Even though the latter isn’t anymore as good as it used to be… Steve Mallia, to me, was not the best of options to replace Lawrence Grech.)

By: Mario Debono

Mario Debono — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:47:14 +0000

Daphne. Magazines are excellent, except or the glaring omission in the last Town. Not everyone is the saint they want people to think in business. But yes, your magazines are a cut above the rest. By the way, i find that the addition of a tiny bit of fresly ground noce moscato makes vitello tonnato sparkle, not just shine. I learnt it from an Italain chef, a count to boot, who runs a very good restaurant in Ravenna.

[Daphne – Nobody’s claiming sainthood. Please be more specific as to the glaring omission.]

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:21:00 +0000

I have to second all comments here regarding Town magazine – it’s a brilliant job and well done. Regarding copyright I’m aware that ALL stations have apparently been broadcasting music without a licence and that the ONE Radio issue was a test case. So it’s unfair just to single them out.

By: marika mifsud

marika mifsud — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:02:53 +0000

Luca – you can read Daphne`s pieces and the ridiculous but fascinating Benoit online.
Unfortunately, that doesn`t solve the problem of the magazines.

By: Tonio Farrugia

Tonio Farrugia — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:05:25 +0000

I’ll second that!

By: Luca

Luca — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:23:57 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with David!!
My family only gets The Independent because there are your pieces, and now I also entice them to read the always far-fetched, redundant pieces of Beniot. Daphne, please take over as editor……it might save the paper, really.

By: jenny

jenny — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:59:16 +0000

@ Daphne
I buy the Independent on Sunday just because of the high quality magazines excluding “First” as I find this magazine below standard and rather boring. I prefer the “circle” distributed with “The Sunday Times” than “First”. Is there any chance that you take over the Publication of “first”? I think that you would make a better job of it.

[Daphne – I’d better not answer this….]

By: Aidan Zammit Lupi

Aidan Zammit Lupi — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:37:30 +0000

This is the comment I left on the Times website – I got there pretty late so few people will probably ever read it… Anyway, I thought I’d post it here:

Excellent work! Music is the result of a lot of hard work and must be paid for. Performing rights are not optional or subject to what a tv company “feels”. Whether the use of songs is considered as advertising for the artist is totally beside the point. A tv station has the right to choose the music it uses for its programs, but any music it chooses to transmit is subject to payment of performing rights. If you don’t want to pay, don’t use the music.

These rights do not go to the singer or performing musicians. They go to the writers of the music and lyrics. They go to the publishers. They are often the only source of income for composers, lyricists and publishers. Usually these people work behind the scenes and get little “advertising” benefits from the use of their work.

The TV company might not directly make profits from the use of music, but can you imagine a tv channel without music? It is essential – a vital component that contributes to the success of a program.

A TV company can itself be the publisher of music used in its productions. Mediaset and RAI are huge publishers here in Italy. They finance and produce a lot of the music they use on their TV stations. That way they pay performing rights but get a lot of them back. They can also profit through use on other channels, radio, cd sales, legal web downloads, live performances and other ways.

By: Corinne Vella

Corinne Vella — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:06:50 +0000

“the company did not feel it was bound to pay copyright fees when it was the authors of the musical works who had given the discs to it free of charge.”

Are they being coy, deliberately disingenuous, or are they just in the wrong line of business?

They don’t seem to know the difference between the intellectual rights to a piece of music and the physical CD on which it is recorded.