Millions for a Song (5 page)

Then, with the utmost confidence, he says, “Just so you know, Tom Paradis had better watch his back because there's no one like my dad's friend when it comes to tough negotiators.”

As far as we're concerned, the whole thing's already in the bag.

We've been keyed up for days now. Mr. Biron's take on our case was not as promising as we hoped. We thought the hard part would be tracking down Tom Paradis. Truth be told, it was child's play. Mr. Biron simply sent a summons to Tom Paradis through
U2
's manager, asking for his contact information.

The manager wasn't keen on seeing a scandal erupt over a copyright issue. So he handed over Tom Paradis' address without a second's hesitation.

Since we'd had no idea where “our” manager lived, we had no way of getting hold of him before. Now, it's a done deal. He lives in Ahuntsic, at 11591, rue Georges-Baril to be exact, in a ranch-house style home. (Me, Mélanie, Jean-François, and Bruno went snooping, only to come to the conclusion that managing bands must be quite lucrative.)

But that's not the problem. The blow we took doesn't come from the fact that he's rich, but from learning that Tom Paradis swears he's the true rights holder for “Live in the Dark.
”
He even forwarded as proof an “official” document sent directly from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.

When Mr. Biron received the copy of form No. 10 entitled
Application for Registration of a Copyright in a Work
and saw the song title, he was stunned.

He was not happy to discover that Tom Paradis, like any good plagiarist who knows the law, had not only carefully registered the song's title, he'd had the lyrics and music authenticated on a separate sheet by the Office.

Faced with the documents, Mr. Biron can only concede that irreparable harm has been done to our case. “No doubt about it,” Mr. Biron says, “Tom Paradis has a real head start. He's got proof he's the author of ‘Live in the Dark
.
'” To clarify the situation for us, he adds, “You have nothing to counter his claims. The evidence he's provided is solid since there's no way we can call into question the government's intellectual property rights office responsible for managing rights. That would be literally absurd ...”

Bruno, crimson with rage, shouts, “But everyone knows we wrote that song. We can call on witnesses who'll confirm we're the songwriters. I know ten, twenty, thirty people who could swear under oath that ‘Live in the Dark' belongs to us. It's our song, not that worm Tom Paradis'!”

A curt Mr. Biron sets Bruno straight. “Calm down, Bruno. If you can't control yourself, I'll have to ask you to leave my office. We can't solve this problem by yelling and screaming. For your information, I can guarantee that the defendant's lawyer will happily tear your witnesses' testimony to shreds. Just singing a song doesn't mean you wrote it. You must know that there are thousands, millions, billions of people who sing other people's songs.”

Then he adds, almost sadistically, “The cards are stacked even more in his favor since the contract you signed with Tom Paradis gives him absolute freedom. He could very well have lent you some of his songs out of the goodness of his heart—don't hit the roof, Bruno, hear me out! Why wouldn't he, since he's covered by his contract with you?”

Now that he's on a roll, he continues, “Need more
proof, Bruno? Look carefully at the cover on the
CD
produced by Tom Paradis. Do you see anything other than
copyright Tom Paradis Inc.? Do you know what that means?
That Tom Paradis wrote every song on the
CD
.”

He finishes off with, “You want more? I'm willing to bet he's registered a copyright on all the songs you're currently singing. So if you think you'll win this case just by swearing you wrote the songs, you're making a colossal mistake.”

Bruno scowls, humiliated. Mr. Biron's right. If we don't proceed with caution, we won't get anywhere. We'll have to think outside the box if we want to beat Tom Paradis at his own game. He may look harmless enough, but now we know that's not the case.

Mr. Biron continues, “We'll have to analyze the situation with cool heads if we want to find a way out. I believe that, among the five of us, we should be able to come up with a clue, a witness, an argument somewhere that will help us win our case.”

Next, he tells us how he plans to proceed, “To win, we'll have to go back over everything that's happened, step by step, from your band's beginnings to the moment we received the document announcing Tom Paradis' copyright. First question: when did you form the band? The question is of the utmost importance.”

With her memory for dates, Mélanie pipes up without hesitating, “The first time we discussed it was over the Christmas holidays, two years ago. I remember clearly, it was December 19
th
, my mom's birthday.”

“Were the songs already written at the time?”

Since I'm the one responsible for typing out the lyrics, I know the answer. “Uh-uh. We had a slow start. A struggle even. It would usually take us a few weeks to come up with our final draft.”

“Do you have all the different versions of your songs?”

“No, I don't. I just wrote the new versions over top of the old ones.”

“Over top of them?”

“Uh-huh, using my computer. A hand-me-down from my dad. An old Macintosh.”

“When was ‘Live in the Dark' written?”

“In early February, for the later version. I don't want to sound like a copycat or anything, but as strange as it may sound, like Mélanie I know the exact date, too, since it was the day after my birthday. February 4
th
.”

“But do you have any proof?”

“No.”

“Okay. Let's move on. When did you meet Tom Paradis?”

“A few days after our show,” Bruno answers. “We performed on November 6
th
. A Saturday. Alexandre met Tom the following week. We agreed to take him on as our manager and signed the contract the following Saturday, that would make it November 13
th
…”

“That's where the problem begins! How do you explain that Tom Paradis registered the copyright on October 26
th
according to the receipt provided by Consumer and Corporate Affairs. If I look at my calendar, October 24
th
was a Sunday, the 26
th
a Tuesday. I imagine Tom Paradis sent the manuscript in on Monday morning, probably via registered mail. The text was received Tuesday, October 26
th
.”

He probes insistently. “Can anyone explain how Tom knew of your songs days before he'd even met you, even before your first show at Brébeuf? Bizarre, isn't it? So much so that, if you can't explain how Tom Paradis had wind of your songs before meeting you, we'll really be in hot water. We'll never be able to convince a judge we're acting in good faith. Our evidence crumbles before the trial even begins ...”

What a shocker! We don't know what to say. More than anything, we're upset at the thought Mr. Biron might think we're lying. Furious, too, to see how royally that creep Tom has played us.

No doubt about it, he knows what he's doing! All of a sudden, we're the accused. What a joke! Enough to make you scream in frustration … I feel like I just might lose it too if things continue down this path.

Having guessed what's on our minds, Mr. Biron tries to reassure us, “Listen up, guys, I have complete confidence in you. I believe what you've told me, that you wrote the songs. That being said, Tom is very crafty. He's covered all his bases to make sure he's above reproach. He's done his utmost to ensure you're the ones on trial.” He continues, “But that's not what we need to focus on. Our first priority is to establish your ownership of the songs, and the only way to do that is to find some proof. If we can't show that he heard the music and lyrics to your songs somewhere or got hold of them somehow, we've lost the trial.”

He weighs his next words carefully, “The loss will hurt
all the more when you consider the amount you would
have received from
U2
. You must know that even though
Canada's 1921 copyright law is archaic, legislation in Europe and
elsewhere, Australia for instance, is much more lucrative for authors.”

Rubbing salt in
the wound, he says, “A songwriter can make millions. In
Europe, the author of a song must be paid for
each use of his or her creation. In your case,
if
U2
makes ‘Live in the Dark' an international hit, we'd be talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Then, to help us understand the inner workings of our so-called manager, “Tom Paradis knew that. That's why he flew to London. He was hoping to find a taker for at least one of the songs he had registered to his name. I can guarantee you're not the only band he's ripped off. Tom Paradis is a copyright pirate. He knows the name of the game!”

But so as not to discourage us too much, he quickly adds, “It won't be easy to catch him red-handed, but I'm sure we'll manage. Like any thief or forger, he's left a trail, a clue. It's impossible not to. Any criminal I've ever met feels an irrepressible urge to leave proof behind, a bit of rope that can be used to hang them. It's as though they want to be punished in spite of themselves.”

Finally, he lays out his plan of action. “Our problem is that we have to pull a Sherlock Holmes under less than ideal conditions. The events occurred over a year ago. Now, as everyone knows, memories fade. So you're going to have to focus all your brain power on the period between October 20
th
and 30
th
. I'm convinced that sometime during that time frame, he was able to get hold of several of your songs, or at the very least ‘Live in the Dark.' As soon as Tom had the lyrics and music in hand, he sent them to the Intellectual Property Office. If he wanted the law on his side, it was in his best interests not to wait a second more.”

Jean-François has kept quiet, as usual, up to this point, but now he jumps out of his chair.

Not only has he remembered that Nexxtep gave a concert for a group of neighborhood kids in my basement on Saturday, October 23
rd
, but—and this is what has him all worked up—he also clearly remembers seeing a kid using a digital recorder like the ones journalists use for interviews.

That had struck him at the time because his dad, who's a journalist for
La Presse
, had just bought himself the same model. He found it strange to see a ten-year-old fooling around with such a high-end recorder. He put it down to the kid's being a big fan. He figured the boy likes us so much he borrowed his dad's recorder to tape us ...

Great, we've got a lead! The only problem is that no one else seems to remember the kid. We were all so wrapped up in our first unofficial show that we didn't notice a thing.

“It doesn't matter,” Mr. Biron announces. “We
know a child recorded your pre-concert. This can mean one
of two things: either the child is innocent or Tom
Paradis used him to do his dirty work. Either way,
we can assume that Tom Paradis managed to get hold
of that recorder and, thanks to the recording, reproduce the
lyrics and music quite easily. Now what we need to
know is: who is that boy? Any idea, Jean-François?”

“None, I'd never seen him before.”

“If that's the case,” Mr. Biron continues, “we have to track down everyone who attended to see if we can identify him. His testimony will be crucial to our case. If we can get him on the witness stand admitting he gave his recording to Tom Paradis, we've got a shot at winning this thing.”

He finishes his thought to make sure we understand how tricky our situation is, “Don't get me wrong: We still won't have won. One thing is very clear: it will be almost impossible to attack Tom Paradis' evidence. We have to be careful not to lose sight of our prey and get caught up in thinking your rights will magically revert to you once we find the recording.”

Finally, to buoy us up
a bit, he explains his strategy, “However, I do think
that, thanks to the testimony, we could force Tom Paradis
to compromise himself, make a wrong move, and perhaps indirectly, confess to his guilt.”

Satisfied with having taken a first step in our case, Mr. Biron concludes there's more we can do. He puts us all to work. “We're going to play a game in which you all try to remember back to that time frame. Any details: where you went, who you met up with, people you mentioned your songs to, anyone you might have shown them to, including your own parents. We have to go over everything with a fine tooth comb.”