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Artist Not Allowed To Stream His Own Music

the_arrow writes "Scottish artist Edwyn Collins wanted to stream one of his own songs on MySpace, but it seems that copyright misunderstandings make him unable to do so. According to the article, 'Management for the former Orange Juice frontman have been unable to convince the website that they own the rights to A Girl Like You, despite the fact that they, er, do.' Collins said, 'I found a nice lawyer guy at Warners, very apologetic, promised to get it sorted, but all these months later it isn't.' His wife added, 'MySpace are not equipped to deal with the notion that anyone other than a major [label] can claim a copyright.'"

10 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Not always a problem by DeeVeeAnt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have several friends in small unsigned bands who have posted their music to MySpace. Has the policy changed, or is this guy just unlucky?

    --
    Home fucking is killing prostitution.
  2. Sue Warner Brothers. by FlyingBishop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If people had been able to stream this over the internet, he could easily have lined up dozens of concerts paying tens of thousands of dollars each, all because Warner Brothers fradulently claimed copyright to his work.

    Throw in some pointless punitive damages, and that ought to net him a good 6 million dollars, right? I mean if it works for the RIAA...

  3. Amazon sells the track by SiChemist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I found "A girl like you" on Amazon's mp3 downloads. Sent them an e-mail asking about the rights with a link to the Guardian article. If I get a reply, I'll post it here.

    It's from a "Greatest hits" album, so I suppose it's within the realm of possibility that the label has rights to it.

  4. Re:Think by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That said, if MySpace decides to remove content every time a party comes and claim copyright to the content, it's a MySpace problem, nothing more.

    We all know the Majors care about their artists, not THE artists, and only because it makes money. They don't give a rat's *ss about art, music or any concept like this. They care about their wallet, art and artists be damned.

  5. It takes about 10 minutes to fix this... by herojig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Post the song on a hosted website of your choosing (other then myspace). 2. Link to the song from the myspace page to the hosted file. 3.Get these articles of /.

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    I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH
  6. Re:Warner Music Group claims copyright by skammie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    MySpace would rather delete and account then do ANY fact checking. This happened to me and my music. Everything was fine for about a year, and then *poof* the page was gone. I asked why, and I got a generic response about violating the TOS. I asked for more specifics, but I was not given any more details. I was told touch luck, build a new page. It goes without saying I didn't build a new page. The previous page I set up didn't get that many hits anyway.

    --
    "Fortunately, I'm adhering to a very strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber..."
  7. Re:Simple Solution by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's really a pissy attitude. IANAM, but my Pa was. He could make music with anything, if he could pull a string tight across it. He and his friends actually recorded some decent music, over the years. They all had haircuts and jobs - they all raised families - they were all respectable people.

    None of them ever expected to "make money" - they played music together because they loved music, they loved performing for people, and they just loved being together. They did sell a little music - a dozen tapes at a nursing home, a couple dozen at a church, another dozen at a corner store somewhere. Enough to pay for gasoline sometimes, to offset costs.

    Something like Myspace would have been cool, back in the '60's up through the early '80's. They might have sold a little more music, and they certainly would have been better known outside their home counties. You may have even heard of them, if there had been a means to distribute their music for free!

    Indies. Those are the REAL musicians. The labels? They know how to pry money out of fool's pockets, but they don't know music.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  8. Re:Think by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, one would think the DMCA gave the site owner the right to get proof thet the plaintiff is the actual copyright holder before doing anything. I don't think the DMCA is the problem here.

    That said, you get a point in that any other website would do the same. And it's a problem between these sites and the contents publishers.

    I remember a story in europe where a magazine did get free blog hosting from ~40 providers. They published a novel by Victor Hugo - ie: In the public domain for centuries. There was a note at the bottom of the page stating this.

    Then they contacted formally all of the hosting companies demanding that the BLOG be shut off because it infringed their copyright. The results: 1 hosting company did its job, read the copyright notice, double checked the fact and sent an email back saying it was bullsh*t. 7 did ask for more proof, the rest did just shut the blog down, no questions asked.

    Customer service is a thing of the past....

  9. Re:Warner Music Group claims copyright by Stoutlimb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And the corollary is:

    "Sufficiently advanced forms of incompetence are indistinguishable from malice."

  10. Re:iFail by TheGreenNuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You young whipper snapper, I remember when it was still THEfacebook.com as shown in this Orginal Facebook layout. Now get off my lawn.