Film-Tone, Part 2

Last post, I mentioned coming across some copyright dispute (at the Internet Archive) and concluding there wasn't much info of use.  Bob gave it a closer look and pulled out vital info, though I can't picture anyone reading the entire 150-plus-page nightmare.  For instance, he informed me that the musical director--the one who looks like "Vincent Poll" on the label--was Vincent Poli.  And, meanwhile, the actual director was Elmer Schmidt.  The on-line document doesn't come out and actually name Poli as an alias for Schmidt--there could have been a real Poli, though not on the record--but Poli was an alias by default, so that's what I've dubbed him.  More info at the actual document.  I was revising my update even as people were reading my post--I had mistaken a leaflet for the Madhatters Trio (the group credited as "vocal trio" on the Film-Tone EP) for the magazine ad used to reel in the gullible marks for this outrageous scam.  Some of my details might be a little off, but I think I got the gist.  Film-Tone was a standard "song-poem" operation, only at such an epic level of flat-out lying that the consters had no chance of getting away with their scheme for long.  Common sense should tell a con artist that, if you're going to pull a standard scam, stay within the normal, conventional limits of that scam.  That lowers the probability of being sued, and it makes serious legal trouble unlikely, especially if a lot of other people are doing the same thing.  When you blow up the scam, you're just making yourself a target.  I have good dishonesty instincts--too bad I'm such a straight sort.

So, check out my last post for the update, which I revised about, oh, twenty times in the space of an hour.  Legal documents never, ever start with an "Okay, here's the basic situation...." statement.  Intellectual people know to start big--to generalize, THEN cut things into smaller pieces.  From general to specific.  You're supposed to learn that in college.



Lee