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Universal Wants a Slice of Apple's iPod Pie

Posted by samzenpus on from the pay-to-play dept.

vought writes "According to a Reuters report, Universal is now taking the precendent set by Microsoft's Zune and moving to force Apple to include a royalty payment with each iPod. In the words of Universal Music's Doug Morris, 'These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it's time to get paid for it.' Does Microsoft's precedent mean the start of a slippery slope that will add a 'pirate tax' to every piece of hardware that touches digital music?"

3 of 555 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fuckin' A Right! by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 5, Informative
    Because that music tax would only go to RIAA-owned artists.


    There is an interesting argument here that even Universal's artists might not get a cut from that money - namely, if their contract with the label doesn't explicitly stipulate a cut from licensing electronic devices, they're all fucked over. At least if the current behavior (i.e. iTunes licensing splits) are something to judge by.
  2. Re:YES! This makes PERFECT sense! by Finn61 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The quote is not from the article but something Doug Morris has been quoted as saying.

    It seems to have come from a Nov 10 Billboard piece:
    http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.js p?vnu_content_id=1003380831

    --
    "Looking good Vern."
  3. Re:Canadians not-sued by Baorc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Being Canadian and all, I have read about this law for the "media tax" and so on, basically they compared downloading music to going to the library and making a photocopy of a book or its pages and so on. But what they explicitly said was wrong was "advertising" your shares. Or basically saying openly "Hey I have music, come download from me!". That is illegal.

    So basically, you can download but you can't share.