Update: Captiol, Coldplay Remove Forced Record Contract from Contest

(image thanks to Deviantart user MarcosVolta)

(Note: This is a continuation of the story started here, and has a followup here.)

Once again, thanks to B-Money for bringing this to my attention.

I can’t be sure if this is due to the ever-growing fan backlash thanks to the various Coldplay message boards (some of which linked here too – thanks!), or pressure from Coldplay, or the sudden wakeup from Capitol, but this morning the terms and conditions page for the opening for Coldplay contest I wrote about two days ago are all changed. Let’s take my previous points of contention and see where they are now. Here are the new rules for reference. I had the good sense to archive the page this time around as well – I wish I did last time, too.

• My first point was a minor one (not good persuasive writing, I know). Live Nation and Capitol reserve the right at any time to disqualify “inappropriate” submission, without any veto remedy. This is understandable from Capitol’s angle; they want to be in power here. It’s simply far too easy to envision a truly visionary band being dismissed my companies simply for being too different. Coldplay I’m sure would have some stories about that. I know the Stone Roses do.
• Originally, you granted Capitol an unlimited, royalty-free license to use the work you submitted. This was handy from a promotional angle, but nothing would stop Capitol from, say, licensing it to a campaign ad and collecting the royalties all for themselves. Now the wording has changed to say “each member of the winning band grants permission for Sponsor and those acting under its authority to use his/her name, photograph, voice and/or likeness, for advertising and/or publicity purposes, in any and all media now known or hereinafter invented without territorial or time limitations and without additional compensation.” Totally understandable, and much more of a reasonable condition. Capitol is going to want to promote this show with your no-doubt pretty and/or handsome mugs, right? Were this a negotiation I may want to put a cap on the time limit, but there is no negotiation to be had here. What’s interesting to me is that instead of saying they have an irrevocable license to use your song for promotion, they lay no claim over the right to use your song. Technically, any use by Capitol is unauthorized, but you’d be a bit foolish to go after them for advertising your song for the Coldplay show (if that campaign song thing happens, though, I may want to consider a strongly worded letter).
• All claim that Capitol may, to quote the old agreement, “edit, adapt, composite, mix, remix, morph, scan, duplicate, alter and/or otherwise modify and commercially exploit your submission, in whole or in part, without any restrictions as to changes,” is gone. Chalk one up for creative control.
• Perhaps most interesting of all, all of the language about Capitol holding the exclusive right for 60 days to enter you into a recording contract, the (incredibly harsh) terms of which were all laid out in the old terms and conditions – including such hits as no artist accomidations, total transfer of all rights in the songs, total waiving of all moral rights [which, by the way, you can't do becuase they're inalienable by nature], and vague clauses about this falling under the terms and conditions of a standard recording contract from Capitol without any indication as to what those terms are – all are totally removed from the new terms and conditions. No mention whatsoever.

So, can we call this a victory? Did the online roars of many reach the desks on the top floor of that LA office building? Perhaps. If you make decisions based soley on the actual bounds of the rules I’d say this is a totally fair contest at this point (though I still have some issue with the prize package with forced approval by Live Nation and joke of a cash payment). By the sheer nature of the new terms and conditions this is an okay game to play.

However, if you consider the character of the other party at the table as much as what’s written in the contract, I’d still stay away from this one. Capitol cannot be let off the hook so easily. It was no mistake that the provisions of the contest were so restrictive, controlling, and malicious. Capitol thought in this case they could wave Coldplay in front of your face with the right hand while the left went into your pocket for your wallet. Their changing of the rules was no doubt due to some external influence. In other words, the Devil may offer you a fair deal, but you are still negotiating with the Devil. Be careful.

On the other side of the issue, in as much as they deserve shame for the previous contest rules, FNX and Coldplay and all other parties deserve credit for any influence they had in changing about the rules, and dedicated Coldplay fans deserve some thanks for raising hell about the issue. Thanks to all the new readers as well who came by for this post from the Coldplay boards. Hope you stick around.