A record label is attempting to illegally use my track “Satellite Serenade,” a collaboration between myself and Keiichi Suzuki, without permission or consent. Doug Shipton and “Strictly Kev” are behind this release, which they claim is “completely legal” – this is incorrect.
THE LEGAL VIOLATIONS:
Copyright Infringement: I co-created “Satellite Serenade” and retain all rights. I never signed my publishing to Universal Music. All contracts with The Orb expired years ago, (none of them legally enforceable anyway – which i am going to show shortly) making any past agreements void. They have no legal basis to use this work.
False Representation: The release gives me zero credit as co-creator and implies they own/created the work. This is fraudulent misrepresentation of authorship.
Their Own Admissions: They admit they didn’t ask my permission. They’re openly taunting me about using my work without authorization while claiming it’s legal – a direct contradiction.
THE SMOKING GUN:
Either Universal Music is lying about owning publishing rights they don’t have, or someone has been collecting my royalties under false pretenses for 35 years. Both scenarios are illegal.
THE BROADER PATTERN:
This represents the music industry’s continued exploitation of disabled artists. When I explained that The Orb involved criminal acts of coercive control against me as an autistic person, their response was dismissive contempt. Ninja Tune’s Matt Black is reportedly “totally down” with this exploitation.
MY POSITION:
I DO NOT CONSENT to this release. I DO NOT CONSENT to being associated with these people. The casual dismissal of disability exploitation while stealing my work is morally bankrupt. This has caused me such distress I’ve stopped making music entirely.
ADDITIONAL LEGAL VIOLATIONS:
Commercial Exploitation Without Consent: They’re selling my track as part of a commercial compilation with merchandise (gatefold sleeve, T-shirt designs, illustrated compendium) – clear commercial exploitation of my copyrighted work.
False Attribution/Curation Claims: Press copy states tracks were “picked and arranged by Mario, David and Kevin” from “their collections” – falsely implying ownership/curatorial rights over my work.
Historical Misrepresentation: They’re rewriting history, inserting my independently created work into their Telepathic Fish narrative as if it belonged to their scene, while systematically erasing me from the story.
Calculated Erasure: Press coverage lists my track first but mentions zero creators. My work appears to be a key selling point, making the erasure commercially motivated and deliberate.
THE REMIX EXPLOITATION RACKET:
This release also endorses the record industry’s systematic theft through “remix” publishing scams. In the 90s, labels would commission remixes then register themselves as 100% publishing owners, claiming the new work was “derivative” of their original – even when the remix bore no resemblance to the source material. This was bog standard – they would all do it.
I would completely transform tracks, writing new melodies, arrangements, and sound design that made them commercially viable. Yet I’d receive 0% publishing because labels classified my electronic contributions as “non-musical” / simple motifs, sound design or anything else rather than say the word “composition.” They hired me specifically for my mixing desk skills, sound design, and track-building abilities – then used semantic games to steal the publishing from the very creativity they were paying for.
Even on remixes where I wrote everything, I have often got zero publishing rights. They’d claim the basic elements they gave me at the beginning – which I often erased entirely – warranted 100% ownership of the completely new work I’d created.
“Satellite Serenade” is roughly 50/50 between myself and Keiichi Suzuki, with the latter half featuring little to none of his input. But under the remix exploitation model, my contributions are probably not even registered in the PRS or PPL.
By endorsing this release, they’re endorsing decades of systematic publishing theft from electronic artists whose work was deliberately misclassified to deny us our rights. It’s the same exploitative mindset that created The Orb situation in the first place.
They can keep their shitty cover and drink their black worm jism – but they cannot steal my work.
