Either Courtney Love is really, really smart, or she had someone brainy write her speech for the Digital Hollywood conference. The speech is awfully long, but if you’re interested in music piracy, the record industry, or the rights of artists, you really should read the whole thing. In it, she mentions that now artists work under “work for hire” contracts when they sign with record labels. Basically this means that the record company, not the artist, owns the copyright to the music. I can tell you that computer book writers who produce works that have half lives of about two weeks scoff at “work for hire” contracts. It’s amazing that recording artists are forced to accept this kind of shoddy dealing. The level of sleaziness exhibited by the major labels is truly amazing, and the entire music industry is desperately in need of major repairs. As a writer, I believe that artists deserve to be paid for their intellectual property. Courtney Love is right in saying that record companies don’t do a better job of paying musicians than does Napster.