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Spotify Hit With $1.6 Billion Copyright Lawsuit (spin.com)
The Wixen Music Publishing company, which administers song compositions by Tom Petty, Dan Auerbach, Rivers Cuomo, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, and others, has hit Spotify with a copyright lawsuit seeking $1.6 billion in damages. The publishing company filed the lawsuit on December 29, alleging the streaming giant is using Petty's "Free Fallin" and tens of thousands of other songs without license or compensation. SPIN reports: Back in September, Wixen objected to a $43 million settlement Spotify had arranged over another class action lawsuit brought by David Lowery (of Cracker and Camper van Beethoven) and Melissa Ferrick, stating it was "procedurally and substantively unfair to Settlement Class Members because it prevents meaningful participation by rights holders and offers them an unfair dollar amount in light of Spotify's ongoing, willful copyright infringement of their works." A judge has yet to rule on that settlement, and in the meantime, Wixen has moved to file its own lawsuit, which purports "as much as 21 percent of the 30 million songs on Spotify are unlicensed," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"Spotify brazenly disregards United States Copyright law and has committed willful, ongoing copyright infringement," the complaint reads. "Wixen notified Spotify that it had neither obtained a direct or compulsory mechanical license for the use of the Works. For these reasons and the foregoing, Wixen is entitled to the maximum statutory relief."
"Spotify brazenly disregards United States Copyright law and has committed willful, ongoing copyright infringement," the complaint reads. "Wixen notified Spotify that it had neither obtained a direct or compulsory mechanical license for the use of the Works. For these reasons and the foregoing, Wixen is entitled to the maximum statutory relief."
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If you listened to these artists while you did anything, their reasoning is that you not only owe them for the music, but you also owe them for what you did while listening to them. They set your brain waves straight!
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Born on the run
Are they forgetting the huge value of all the piracy that they have prevented by streaming? Isn't one illegal download prevention about $350M or so?
thats wonderful news, all the children born to music in the background should now be eligible for child support from these artists.
It appears Spotify has not been able to put together a sustainable business model and they are unable to pay their suppliers. I am not really sure why there are people here that think it is ok for Spotify to sell a product they are not paying for. There are streaming services that have agreements for every track they stream. I don't know if they're profitable. It doesn't really matter to me as long as they are paying the artists. Sure in some cases there are other companies getting paid too, but that is only because artists entered into business deals with those other companies.
They're always likely to get hit with things like this and you're always likely to wake up one morning, play your favourite playlist only to realise most of it isn't there.
Actually, you do have a right to listen to any music you want, any way you want. Copyright is supposed to be a limited period where your right is suspended, so the creator can seek compensation. It was never envisioned or expected to be a perpetual lock on artistic works and has been greatly abused by the music industry.
What the actual hell was Spotify thinking? Just use it without permission and settle the lawsuit later? Was it a technical error where they thought they had the license? Did someone misrepresent ownership of it? There has to be another side of this other than they downloaded a high bitrate copy off the pirate bay and then streamed it knowingly illegally.
no one wants fucking CDs anymore
Speak for yourself.. I still buy CDs and blu rays. And paper books. And these things called "records," played by dragging a stone down a groove made of dead dinosaurs and plant decay at 33 1/3rd RPM.
Streaming for the convenience, physical for the permanence.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
The music industry is pure scum. Never give a penny to those cockroaches and the washed up has-beens they purport to represent. No one deserves ongoing compensation for work they did decades ago.
For those who are brave and upstanding patriots, the best thing is to share - download, upload, and liberate as much music as possible. CULTURE BELONGS TO EVERYONE.
For those like me who live in fear of our repressive regime and their jack booted thugs, the best thing is simply not to listen to any non-free music. Never subscribe. Never login. If an ad starts to play, closer the stream. Most of it is garbagey pap anyway. This course also provides a convenient occasion to spit at snobby consumerist music scenesters.
I think you might have missed the humour in the OP...just saying.
Here I was thinking I was paying $9.99 to Spotify a month in order to get my music legally...it's convenient and comparatively cheap. I thought the musicians were getting some money from this. Turns out I should just go back to downloading pirated stuff off of bittorrent and soulseek.
What GP meant, essentially, is that you have the natural right to listen to any music you want. We have created a *legal* right in the creators of artistic works to control distribution and enjoyment of those works for a limited time in order to promote their creation.
This is the view with which copyright was created and is how it's taught in first year property classes in law school. You've been around here long enough to have been exposed to this already; shame on you for trolling.