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A well modified label fully masking the yellow "Columbia" rim,
which makes it looking like a completely different label |
If you, like me, are a collector outside the US, you may have seen US-export vinyl copies whose
Columbia Records logo and text, wherever on the sleeve or the record labels, are crossed out, erased by black or color ink, or covered by blank stickers or stickers with printed
CBS Records logo. This is simply because in certain import countries, the trademark is not owned by the domestic company or agent having partnership with
the US Columbia Records, but by other unrelated companies, mostly for historical reasons as a result of mergers, acquisitions or corporate restructurings in music industry there.
Japan is one such typical example, where the
Columbia brand was originally introduced in 1931 by
Nippon Phonograph
Co. (also known as
Nipponophone Co., Ltd.), a subsidiary of
EMI (Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd.) that retained ownership of the label at that time. Then
EMI sold the trademark. In the US, the right to the
Columbia brand was taken over by
CBS Inc., but in Japan, continued to be owned by
Nippon Phonograph (known as
Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. after World War II, and then
Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. since 2002). The company did not assign the right to
Sony Inc. (Japan) in 1968 when
Sony and
CBS Inc. (USA;
Columbia Broadcasting System Inc., back then) established the joint venture to form
CBS/Sony Records Inc. So, the
Columbia label is still operated in Japan by the company unrelated to
the US Columbia Records, which keeps preventing
Sony from using the brand name and logo here.
Note: Although I tried to explain as simple and accurate as possible the background and current copyright situation of the Columbia trademark in Japan, there may be misunderstanding and errors due to my confusion.
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| Four stickers, including the custom red/gold CBS Records logo seal on the upper right corner of the rear sleeve, are used on the outer sleeve while one masks a "Columbia" text in the credit description on the lower right part of the inner sleeve. |
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An example of a sloppily modified copy, found somewhere internet
(not in my possession) |
The above shown US pressing of
BORN TO RUN (PC 33795; non-misspelt later pressing) represents one of such sleeve/label-modified vinyl issues. As far as I've seen, this particular copy is the most smartly modified one, by using
golden stickers which mask all the
Columbia logo and text found on the sleeve as well as the record labels, and where appropriate, the
CBS logo is pasted over. In another example (shown right), the logo and brand name are crossed out by
rough hand-writing with marker on the label and covered with grey stickers on the sleeve, which looks fairly sloppy in comparison to the above
gold-stickered copy. One may question as to where the sleeve and labels are modified. Because this "Columbia - CBS" copyright infringement concerns only in a few specific countries, and because the individual copies seem not to be uniformly modified in the same way (as seen in the two copies shown here), I guess they are processed after export from the US. Collection-wise, these LP releases certainly do not constitute prime targets, but could
be good additions to vinyl collection if the sleeve and labels are well
modified to be nice looking, such as the one mentioned here.
