Last year, Rana and Ahmad Alyaseer set out on an unusual mission: to get their 227-page novel -- based on their trip to Italy from Jordan to see an Adele concert -- into the hands of Adele herself.
But after seeing My Trip to Adele soar to the No. 2 spot among the top 100 free Amazon reads last December, the siblings have pulled it from the internet following instructions from the singer’s camp to stop distributing it without permission.
“It’s frustrating that we’ve been in continuous attempts to get Adele a copy since September 2016, and up until this moment we are still trying to do so,” says Ahmad Alyaseer, 27, who works in the film industry and has directed TV series for Middle East-based stations as well as the 2012 indie film When Time Becomes a Woman. “Is this how a fan honoring his favorite artist in his writing should get treated?”
Despite positive feedback from reviewers online, the book ran into trouble because it was based on Adele’s lyrics, drawing lines from 25 of her songs to close each chapter. The story is fictional, but was inspired by the Alyaseer siblings’ May 2016 trip to see Adele perform in Verona -- the same performance where Adele stopped her show to ask a woman to stop filming with her tripod.
“Every artist and songwriter has the right to protect her intellectual property from unauthorized use,” says Christine Lepera, co-chair of the IP/Entertainment Litigation Group of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, adding that decisions regarding the use of lyrics -- often co-owned by music publishers and other writers -- may not be up to the artist. “Contractual arrangements may also prevent a writer or artist from unilaterally approving certain uses of their lyrics or music, regardless of whether or not the proposed use is not monetized or whether it is simply a sign of fan love.”
The Alyaseers told Billboard they were inspired to write the book after spending nearly $3,500 on flights, their hotel and concert tickets. Once they had a draft, they said they attempted to contact Adele’s management several times. But celebrity artist teams can rarely respond to such outreach from their millions of fans. Getting no initial response from Adele, they decided to publish the book online for free, distributing about 5,000 downloads.
“Many book reviewers wondered if Adele had read the book,” he says, “so we contacted her [team] again. [This time], they asked us how many copies we had sold, and which countries we have been selling the book to. We made it clear that we distributed the book for free and there was no profit gained whatsoever. We told them that our only concern was to send Adele a copy for her to read it as a gift from two fans.”
(Amazon only allows publishers to list books for free after a short period of selling, so the pair earned $500 in a short sales run, not enough to cover the $15,000 they spent on printing, materials, research, marketing and distribution.)
Adele’s team told the Alyaseers to stop distributing the book, according to the Alyaseers. A representative for Adele declined to comment.
While the siblings took the book offline in August, they lashed out in September by posting a video on YouTube entitled “How Adele’s representatives crushed two authors dreams.” The video details the siblings’ relentless efforts to reach Adele through her husband, her makeup artist, Ellen Degeneres, Oprah Winfrey, and “other celebrities,” even attempting to have their friends track down her manager in person in London.
The Alyaseers’ video trailer for the novel also remains online.
Had the case gone to court, California-based intellectual property attorney Chris Weiss says that because “this fictional novel is not being sold for a profit, is based on true events, only uses a part of the lyrics, and will not keep others from purchasing Adele songs or going to Adele concerts, the writers have a good case for fair use.”
Federal copyright law allows for the unlicensed use of copyrighted material in certain situations, depending on the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of use in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use on the value of the copyrighted work, Weiss says.
“Since Adele holds the record for the fastest-selling album and her concerts sell out in seconds, it is highly unlikely that this book would dissuade others from buying her songs or purchasing tickets to her concerts,” Weiss says.
But such legal proceedings would be expensive and could go either way. In an email to the Alyaseers, showcased in their September video, a representative from Adele’s camp offered one piece of good news: “You won’t have to pay anything for the usage until now. Therefore, we are offering you a comfortable exit door.”
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