“The 4.7 billion viewers who accessed television coverage of the Beijing Olympics officially translates into approximately 70 percent of the world’s population, or more than two in every three people globally.”

When you consider that each country’s coverage of the Olympics would have used different theme music (including the ubiquitous Chinese theme songs), the one musical consistency for the entire 4.7 billion people would have been the national anthems played ad nauseam throughout the entire 16 days.

This must be a contender for the most exposure ever for a body of musical work in a two week period. You can imagine why Peter Breiner, the man who arranged all 200 national anthems for the Athens Olympics in 2004, was pretty pissed off to find out his works were being used this time around as well without any approval, recognition or compensation. The Washington Post reports that while the Beijing Olympic Committee say all anthems were “orchestrated by Chinese musicians”, Breiner is “100 percent positive” the arrangements are his.

I’m fairly certain Breiner will not see a penny for this. He will just have to enjoy the outstanding anecdotal fodder that comes from being the victim of perhaps the most visible copyright infringement of all time.

© Ed Peto 2008