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Kazaa Agrees to Pay $100m to the Record Industry

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pay-up dept.

siddesu writes "BBC has the following breaking story: File-sharing site Kazaa will become a legal music download service following a series of high-profile legal battles. The peer-to-peer network has also agreed to pay $100m (£53m) in damages to the record industry. The announcement follows the release of a music industry report that says more than 20 billion music tracks have been downloaded illegally in the last year. Hungry artists across the globe rejoice."

5 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. But.... by zo1dberg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why does the money go to "the record industry", and not these "hungry artists"?

  2. Re:just how much will each artist make? by Reverend528 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I know theres a lot of artists, but does anybody know just how many and just how much of this money will actually go to the artists?

    Technically, the artists now owe the RIAA money.

    --
    Badass Resumes
  3. Re:just how much will each artist make? by KokorHekkus · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Who knows... but it doesn't look good for the smaller artists I guess.

    To quote Janis Ian:
    ...from personal experience: in 37 years as a recording artist, I've created 25+ albums for major labels, and I've never once received a royalty check that didn't show I owed them money. So I make the bulk of my living from live touring, playing for 80-1500 people a night, doing my own show.

    And she goes on to state her opinion on the downloads as:
    Who gets hurt by free downloads? Save a handful of super-successes like Celine Dion, none of us. We only get helped.

    Source: http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.h tml
  4. Please, pretty please, once and for all by zuki · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What the scariest thing is with this type of settlement is that no one,absolutely no one seems to really know - or care - about what will happen to such a huge pile of money, and further that it probably will only go to enrich those who have major chart successes, their lawyers, or the IFPI itself (claiming it needs more $$ to fight piracy), rather than those copyright holders whose music was actually downloaded.

    Of course, as with a major news organization such as the BBC, no need to wax philosophic on the actual real-world meaning and consequences of such actions, and the possible windfall (or lack thereof) to those who created the content in question. Rethorical question if you ask me.

    Sort of like the "War On Terror(TM)"... By now everyone forgot why we are fighting it, as we are too involved in the day-to-day fighting to remember what it was supposed to be about.

    Carry on lads, carry on....

    Z.

  5. Canada Number 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    TFReport cites Canada as the second worst 'offender' in music downloads worldwide.
    Perhaps that is due to our Blank Media levy that makes downloading essentially legal in this country.
    Now whether those billions of tracks were subsequently uploaded is another question entirely (this is not covered by the levy), but i suppose that doesn't help the RIAA:

    "Them there Canucks did 23 Braaziiiilion downloads. Invade Canada!!"