Record Labels Face $6 Billion Damages for Pirating Artists
It is no secret that the major record labels have a double standard when it comes to copyright. On the one hand they try to put operators of BitTorrent sites in jail and ruin the lives of single mothers and students by demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, and on the other they sell CDs containing music for which they haven’t obtained copyright permission.
In the past we’ve covered many disputes between artists and labels, where the latter is being accused or even sued for using songs without permission. Just a few months ago Latin America’s biggest artist, Alejandro Fernández, sent the police to a Sony Music office to confiscate over 6,000 CDs that the label refused to return, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or copyright infringements) has grown to 300,000.
Growing tired of the labels’ piracy, a group of artists have filed a class-action lawsuit in Canada against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local equivalent of the RIAA. In October last year Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music were sued for illegal use of thousands of tracks and at present the case is still underway.
How and why this blatant copyright infringement could go on for years is a mystery, but the labels’ double standard has been picked up by the plaintiffs as well. “The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers,” the artists argue in their claim for damages.
The suit is still ongoing but already the labels have admitted to owing at least $50 million for infringing the rights of artists, and this figure could grow as high as 6 billion. So who are the real pirates here?
Update: The correct figure is 6 instead of 60 billion.
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Comment
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Comment by Jewelz P on December 9, 2009 at 5:23am -
HERE'S THE LINK TO DOWNLOAD ALBUM
http://www.zshare.net/download/67199770beaa9214/
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Comment by Glen Young on December 9, 2009 at 2:11am -
they the REAL criminals
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Comment by Glen Young on December 9, 2009 at 2:11am
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Suits are the worst my man
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Comment by HateKilledHiphop on December 9, 2009 at 12:28am -
dont believe evrything u read
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Comment by HateKilledHiphop on December 9, 2009 at 12:27am
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dont believe evrything u read
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Comment by STOP SNITCHIN on December 8, 2009 at 11:20pm -
WOW THIS IS CRAZY
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Comment by jay on December 8, 2009 at 11:06pm -
daaaaaammmmmmnnnn. that was some dirty ass s*** they was pullin.
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Comment by BEANZ on December 8, 2009 at 11:05pm -
what they use to do is give djs rights to copy all exclusives then send the abc boys after the djs for bootlegging there s***!!!!!! its all a fuked up game f** da big labels let the independent labels shine its our time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Comment by Dmitriy on December 8, 2009 at 9:42pm -
maybe after dis s*** they will stop claiming s*** on youtube to get it blocked when it's not even theirs.
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Comment by jonesn on December 8, 2009 at 8:53pm
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they are dirty we all know this we let them take hip hop from us now they wont let us get s*** they own yall rap stars niggaz need to take back whats theres cause at the end of the day they need us they white ass cant rap
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