I have sent MySpace a complaint about cyber bullying on their site. The cyber bully in question is MySpace themselves with their sledgehammer and nut tactics.

They have summarily removed one of my tracks with no discussion and no right to appeal. I own the copyright in the song in question. The song is Ne Me Plaignes Pas recorded by Celine Dion.

They add insult to injury by lecturing me on copyright. They clearly have not read the contents of my site; I’m no stranger to copyright. And then they say I now have to go on MySpace’s “Copyright Education Program” before I can ever upload anything again – no thanks!

Copyright is a moral and ethical issue as well as a financial one. I have done nothing morally or ethically wrong. You may have spotted this disclaimer on my site “Sound clips on this site are either my own copyright or I have some connection with the track. I have mostly used only short clips of tracks to give a flavour of it. It is not my intention to abuse the copyrights of others.”

Financially it’s another story. The track was not downloadable and I was making no money from having it on MySpace. The recording is 26 years old and long past its big money earning period. I am making no impact on Celine’s bank balance whatever nor that of her record company, indeed I may have encouraged a few sales of compilation CD’s.

In 1982 I had my biggest hit with Hurry Home by Wavelength which went top 20. Soon after I had a hit in Canada which seemed less significant at the time, except how were we to know that the singer was to become one of the most successful recording artists in the world. You may have heard the story of how Rene Angelil mortgaged his house to fund Celine’s early career! Well Celine set out on her dream of international stardom armed with one of my songs? Ne me Plaignez Pas ! – I think I deserve better treatment. Celine recorded the song in 1983 having heard Sheena Eastons 1982 recording of my song “Please Don’t Sympathise” (the English version) Shena’s version is still on MySpace (for now)

Bizarrely you can still here the song on MySpace via the YouTube Videos I posted. Click here.

View Compilation CD’s Here

My Space www.myspace.com/stmedia2

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