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By Leslie Satcher
Hard work and an honest dollar. That's the credo I grew up with as the fifth-generation Texan granddaughter of cotton sharecroppers and a strong-hearted single mother.
In 1989, I went to Nashville in an old Chevrolet dragging a U-Haul trailer with an ironing board strapped to the back. With luck and perseverance over the years, it's been my privilege to write and share the music I created with listeners throughout America. That's how I make my living.
Nashville songwriters say that "it all begins with a song." And a song begins with the hard work of putting words and notes to paper and instruments.
We earn an honest dollar with our creativity. We don't want it to all end with illegal downloads.
Technology is a boon to today's world, but it does post challenges. For those of us in music, the challenge is making our songs available to our fans worldwide without giving it away.
McDonald's couldn't last in business for long if its customers could take the burgers and fries out the door without paying for them.
The cable company won't bring a world of entertainment to your living room if you don't pay the monthly bill.
And song writers can't last in the music business if there is no income.
I'm confident that true music fans will support the songwriters and stand with us to help stop illegal downloads. It's all about education. We need to let the people who really care about music know that those of us who wrote the music are depending on them to do the right thing and buy their music legally.
However, too many young people just don't know what the law is. They think that if today's electronics make it possible to copy our property from the internet or their friend's handheld device, then it must be okay.
Copyright law isn't as sexy as the lyrics to many of our songs. But it needs to become just as familiar to song lovers.
That's why I and my music industry colleagues are working hard in support of Copyright Awareness Week.
We're working with thousands of teachers around the country to inform students that copyright law protects creative products. Sometimes it's a little hard to understand the concept of a creative product. In music, it's not the plastic that the CD is made of, or the paper that the notes and lyrics are written on-it's the musical essence of the sound you hear from the CD or play from the sheet music.
Think of the difference between a blank CD and a CD of my album "Love Letters." You can feel the two pieces of plastic, and they're the same. You can't literally touch the music, but it's there, and it's what makes the two CDs different. It's what gives the album CD its value. You sure wouldn't pay $15 for a blank CD that's worth about 15 cents.
That value is my work product. If a person copies that CD, or downloads the song from the internet, they're stealing my work product. If I don't get paid for my work product, it won't be long before I have to find something else to do for a living.
I don't want to do something else. I want to keep writing and performing songs. So do my music colleagues like Deborah Allen, Gavin DeGraw, John Legend, Mary Mary, Martina McBride, Paul Overstreet, Sir Mix-A-Lot, the Ying Yang Twins and the guys in 3 Doors Down. You'll hear us all on the radio during Copyright Awareness Week, backing up the message that the teachers are taking to the classroom.
Listen up good, and remember that the copyright law that protects my songs today also will protect the songs or movies or books that you or your friends create tomorrow.
Leslie Satcher is a songwriter for such artists as Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Pam Tillis and Willie Nelson, and a singer.
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