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oligneisti2 karma

He is now an author I've read quite a bit and he sometimes mentions Freddie in his books. Also says he beat Freddie at chess by cheating.

oligneisti2 karma

Do you remember Robert Rankin from college?

oligneisti2 karma

Yeah, he calls it far-fetched fiction, my favourite is called Fandom of the Operator.

Because of the film I've been wondering, did Freddie have an accent at school?

oligneisti2 karma

America was mostly on its on in copyright matters until the late 20th century because it wasn't a party to the Berne convention and you had to register to keep control of it (Like A Wonderful Life went into the public domain because the copyright wasn't renewed). Some things are "grandfathered" into the public domain there but not elsewhere.

In Europe copyright is, and was, automatic. Gettin' Smile was Japanese if I remember correctly and according to Wikipedia Japan has been part of the Berne convention (like most of Europe) from the start.

I really don't understand how they managed to release those songs, maybe there was some loophole they could use in Japan. Or if you signed some contract that they could interpret. Record companies have a way of finding loopholes.

oligneisti2 karma

Not so you'd notice... if anything a kind of refined colonial English, if you see what I mean

Yeah, the movie seemed to portray at least a small accent, Indian, in the early days which struck me as odd. Do you think racism and slurs were a problem for him, as seen in the movie? Did he even mention his background?

Btw. I registered here just for this. One of the first things I ever bought online was Ghost of a Smile in the late 90s. The Smile songs are great, made me very happy. Were you surprised when they showed up on Gettin' Smile? I've heard that Roger and Brian had forgotten about recording so many songs.