Top Stars to Testify At Goody Trial
NEW YORK (UPI) Testimony by top rock stars is likely to play a prominent role in the trial of two executives of the Sam Goody record store chain, which is charged with counterfeiting some of the hottest albums on the market.
The trial the culmination of an FBI undercover probe known as “Operation Mod Sound” is scheduled to begin with jury selection today.
Goody president George Levy, 60, and a vice president, Samuel Stolon, 63, are charged with 16 counts of racketeering, interstate transportation of illicit merchandise and copyright infringement.
The record store chain, one of North America’s largest, also is charged in the indictment and could be fined up to $350,000 if convicted.
Federal authorities say the counterfeit record and tape business costs the industry millions of dollars each year by depriving record companies of their sales and artists of their royalties.
Among the albums allegedly counterfeited and sold as authentic tapes are Billy Joel’s The Stranger, Andy Gibb’s Flowing Rivers, Paul Simon’s Greatest Hits and the soundtrack album from the movie Grease, in which Olivia Newton-John is the featured singer.
Joel, Gibb, Simon and Newton-John are scheduled to testify as prosecution witnesses in the trial. Joel won a Grammy award this year. Simon hosted the awards show.
Federal authorities said the music stars are to testify that they never gave permission to any Sam Goody employee to counterfeit their work.
Levy and Stolon, both of New York, were indicted Feb. 28, 1980 on charges they reproduced and sold the tapes without permission of the musicians or their recording companies.
By law, permission must be given before any copyright recording can be reproduced. Musicians receive royalties when their music is legally reproduced.
Federal authorities define counterfeiting of recorded music as the unauthorized duplication of the copyright recorded sounds, the art work, the record company trademark and the packaging.
The forgeries are almost identical in sound and appearance to the authentic albums and tapes, but there are slight irregularities in the packaging and the recordings.
The Goody case, which involves 100,000 counterfeit tapes valued at $1 million, stemmed from a three-year FBI “sting” operation in which agents posed as operators of a record shop in Westbury, N.Y.