True Born Records Sapere aude…

Taxing the Rich = More Jobs

This is the transcript of a censored TED talk. TED organizers invited Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, an early investor in Amazon.com, to give a speech March 1 at their TED University conference. The topic was inequality. Mr. Hanauer is himself a member of the super rich elite, but in contradiction to the Republican platform of lowering taxes on the nation's wealthiest citizens, his message was this: Wealthy people like him don't create jobs, members of the middle class do.

It is astounding how significantly one idea can shape a society and its policies. Consider this one.

If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down.

This idea is an article of faith for republicans and seldom challenged by democrats and has shaped much of today's economic landscape.

But sometimes the ideas that we know to be true are dead wrong. For thousands of years people were sure that earth was at the center of the universe. It's not, and an astronomer who still believed that it was, would do some lousy astronomy.

In the same way, a policy maker who believed that the rich and businesses are "job creators" and therefore should not be taxed, would make equally bad policy.

The Craft of the Beautiful

“Our fine Arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the Arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the Arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of Art.”

Paul Valéry,
Pièces sur L’Art, 1931
Le Conquete de l’ubiquite

The Traditional Record Deal

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's record label, G-Unit, has become involved in Young Buck's financial troubles. Signed to G-Unit Records in 2004, Young Buck (whose real name is David Darnell Brown) was ordered by a judge to for bankruptcy and now his royalties and intellectual property rights are all up for liquidation to pay off his debts.

Enter Young Buck's arrangement with G-Unit Records...

According to 50 Cent, his label owns 100% of all rights of recordings Young Buck did for G-Unit and has the exclusive right “to distribute, reproduce, and authorize adaptations and all performances in whatever form.” Lawyers say that includes Young Buck’s 2010 studio album, “The Rehab,” and any recordings released since, even the songs released independently of G-Unit.

But that isn't all, 50 says. Young Buck also granted G-Unit rights to use of his professional name, trademarks, portraits, logos and likeness, including “a perpetual and exclusive publicity right” to use his past or current recordings to promote records. G-Unit also says it alone can create and/or host Young Buck’s official website. And an exclusive song-publishing agreement with Universal Music and 50 Cent grants them the exclusive right to administer and publish all of Young Buck’s songs.

“Thus, all compositions created by the debtor have already been irrevocably conveyed to Jackson, and G-Unit Records retains irrevocable rights of ‘every kind and nature,’ including to rights to royalties, copyrights, to renew/extend copyrights and to causes of action,” attorneys wrote.

If that sounds surprising, it shouldn't be. That's just what traditional record labels do. Fortunately for you, True Born Records is not traditional.

~True Born Records