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Record Labels To Pay For Copyright Infringement
innocent_white_lamb writes "Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., EMI Music Canada Inc., Universal Music Canada Inc. and Warner Music Canada Co. have agreed to pay songwriters and music publishers $47.5 million in damages for copyright infringement and overdue royalties to settle a class action lawsuit. 'The 2008 class action alleges that the record companies "exploited" music owners by reproducing and selling in excess of 300,000 song titles without securing licenses from the copyright owners and/or without paying the associated royalty payments. The record companies knowingly did so and kept a so-called "pending list" of unlicensed reproductions, setting aside $50 million for the issue, if it ever arose, court filings suggest.'"
From this I understand that I can now download as many mp3s as I want as long as I put aside 69c per mp3 downloaded in case I am ever asked to pay the full price.
Excellent! Kudos to the music companies for setting us straight on this issue.
Well, yes. although I will point out this is Canadian law which is a little less insane.
Why would the class settle for less than the minimum statutory penalty?
Because class action lawsuits are primarily for the benefit of the lawyers, not the class members. This way, the lawyers get a big payout without actually having to do any work. And the musicians get screwed yet again.
It's unclear to me to what extent there was any actual infringement. As I understand it, the artists agreed to have the CMRRA represent their interests with regard to licencing their work. The CMRRA then set up an agreement that allowed the recording companies to use a work and pay for it later. Which they never did.
It may be that proving infringement in court would be difficult due to the existing agreement. Probably, it would be more like a breach of contract. It's tough to know what case could have been made for infringement, but it certainly would be a tough legal battle. Too bad, that would have been very, very fun to watch.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
It's more or less the actual amount owed to the artists for licencing. They claimed they couldn't pay it out because they couldn't identify the artists on the pending list, but of course they didn't try very hard. The class action suit merely convinced them that it was simpler to just turn over the owed money as a settlement (presumably keeping the interest) to the plaintiffs, rather than identifying and paying the individual artists.
They're cleared of all liability and they've agreed to try a little harder next time, but there are no damages, statutory or otherwise. They're paying out only the owed royalties, just delayed for a few years (would've been indefinitely, but they got called on it).
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Here's a few articles and interviews for you on the subject:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/perfect/radio.html
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/low-power/consolidation.html
http://futureofmusic.org/tags/radio-consolidation
http://futureofmusic.org/article/research/employment-and-wage-effects-radio-consolidation
http://www.daveyd.com/lettertofcc.html
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/05/27/fcc-ponders-the-future-of-radio-consolidation/
http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4653720-1.html
http://iplj.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Note-NO-COMPETITION-HOW-RADIO-CONSOLIDATION-HAS-DIMINISHED-DIVERSITY-AND-SACRIFICED-LOCALISM.pdf