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Sony Accused of Pirating Music In "The Interview"

Posted by timothy on from the such-a-loaded-term dept.

the simurgh writes As the controversy surrounding Sony's handling of its hack, the movie The Interview and its aftermath continues, a singer is claiming that after failing to reach terms with Sony, the company put her music in the movie anyway. Yoon Mi-rae (real name Natasha Shanta Reid) is a U.S.-born hip hop and R&B singer who currently releases music on the Feel Ghood Music label. Sshe and her label claim that her track we learned that the track 'Pay Day' has been used without permission, legal procedure, or contracts.

4 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Sauce for the goose by ihtoit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    $150,000 per claimed violation. That should be counted as ticket sales. How many tickets were sold for the opening day alone?

    Sony would regret lobbying for that pesky DMCA... >:]

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:Sauce for the goose by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why limit to just the legal downloads when the **AA's lawyers certainly don't? Remember, according to the *AAs, it's also a crime to *facilitate* theft, so by making available the movie that includes the copyrighted track surely they should also be liable for all the several million torrented copies, plus all the legitmate pay-per-view downloads from Google etc. too?

      While I suspect this is probaby just a case of office incompetence and someone forgetting an action that will probably be quickly cleaned up with a check in the post, I dearly hope this does end up going to court. Watching Sony's lawyers try and get themselves off the hook without setting precedents that anyone else being sued for infringing copyright can use would be priceless.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  2. Okay.... so what? by mark-t · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's not like Sony doesn't have money.... they can pay for the song's inclusion and all is good.

    I don't defend Sony here, but it's also entirely possible that this was just a mistake... someone at Sony might have thought they had already secured permission, because it was something they intended to do, and they just put in the sound track without thinking about it, and afterwards, nobody else thought to double-check. It's a really stupid mistake, and one they should most definitely pay for, certainly, but it's not like Sony can't reasonably afford to pay for permission to include the work unless the artist was never willing to give Sony permission in the first place, at any price.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  3. Common sense from TFA by resfilter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "It seems unlikely that this lawsuit will result in a messy legal battle. The huge publicity the movie has enjoyed in the past few weeks will virtually guarantee decent sales for Sony, even without lucrative box office revenues. Yoon Mi-rae should not only be able to secure a piece of that but also raise her profile in a way that would not have been possible had Sony paid her in the first instance."