On the (continued) subject of royalties, it amazes me that people are constantly trying to find loopholes so that they don't have to credit the creators of art. Artists of every kind are major contributors to society and, regardless of whether they're extremely successful or not, they deserve whatever they can earn from their contributions.

Now, Jim Jacobs may not be hurting for money (as compared to the artists I mentioned in my previous post on royalites), but as co-creator of the Broadway musical "Grease," he is entitled to keep receiving royalties from the use of his material for as long as people continue to perform "Summer Nights" and strut about stage in leather jackets and greasy hair. But it has recently been brought to his attention that there are offenders out there, ducking under the copyright radar. More specifically, they're out there -- at sea.

According to the New York Times, Jacobs has filed a copyright infringement suit against the owners of Carnival Cruise Lines and several others. "Grease," in part and whole, has been performed several hundred times aboard ships, with no license. Apparently, the cruise corporations are operating under the assumption that the courts can't touch them because the performances were happening in the middle of the ocean, away from the reach of US copyright laws.

We'll have to wait on the verdict, though I'm rooting for Mr. Jacobs. It's bad enough that most performances of "Grease" that he has endured off Broadway are an insult to his creation. But now, people won't even compensate him for it! An anecdote that should shame the cruise lines (who can surely afford to dish out for a copyright license), is related by Ronald Taft (Jacob's lawyer):

On Thursday, he said, he received a call from a high school in Louisiana that was closed for a few weeks last year because of Hurricane Katrina. An official there wanted permission to switch gears from performing the whole show to having students simply sing some of its songs. The official offered to pay $200 for the license. Mr. Taft said he granted permission but declined the payment.

A high school knew to request a license. And this particular high school is in a part of the country that's endured many hardships since the end of last year. They were willing to pay. How embarrassing is it, then, that big corporations renege on this basic decency.