Artists' lawsuit: major record labels are the real pirates

[Eleuthera]

Looks like the "big four" might have made a booboo (in Canada at least)

Between $50 million and $60 billion may be owed to musicians and artists in Canada, but not from your run-of-the-mill file sharers. The Canadian recording industry itself is being accused of massive copyright infringement, and the list of miffed artists just keeps getting longer.

source [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/artists-lawsuit-major-record-labels-are-the-real-pirates.ars]

I can't really help but smile at the possibility of them getting what they give for a change.

 

[Space Spoons]

Unfortunate, but not at all surprising. Major record labels have always been out to stick it to artists. It's usually about money, but honestly, sometimes it seems like they do it just because they enjoy destroying creative types.

I hope these guys get bled dry.

 

[Mr. Tibbles]

Won't that put the US in more debt?

EDIT: Or is it just Canada?

 

[Eleuthera]

Won't that put the US in more debt?

EDIT: Or is it just Canada?

This one just Canada I think. Either way it wouldn't be the government who has to pay, just the companies (and ther parent companies I guess)

 

[Hashandir]

Well well, looks like karma isn't a load of bullshit after all. They've had it coming for a long, long time. Lets just hope that this will serve as a lesson to all the other major record labels in the future.

 

[JaredXE]

Wow, first France sticks it to Scientology, and now Canada is smacking down the recording industry.

I wish America would do something cool with it's court system.

 

[ottenni]

And dinosaurs will die. Or so it would seem anyway. And i hope that works out for the artist's too.

Cookie for reference.

 

[Sonicron]

Konfuzius says: Karma is a *****.

xD

 

[Amnestic]

Spoiler

Not much more to say. $60 billion is not chump change by any means.

 

[GrandAm]

I like the standard being held as what they were suing customers for. $20,000 per song/infringement. I remember when they first started going after customers. They were trying to take the houses of the parents who's kid downloaded mabye $500 worth of music if he bought it in a store.

 

[Mr. Tibbles]

Won't that put the US in more debt?

EDIT: Or is it just Canada?

This one just Canada I think. Either way it wouldn't be the government who has to pay, just the companies (and ther parent companies I guess)

Oh so those companies would take a huge hit and the music industry might collapse? That would be funny.

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

Yay! Things are happening, the world is getting saner!

Now we just need to legalize drugs.

 

[lodo_bear]

Far too many companies play the double standard, and they usually get away with it. Partially clips had an insightful strip on a related subject [http://partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1626&c=1].

This fight is never over. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, so keep your eye on the companies and don't let them steal money or music.

 

[Radelaide]

Wow, first France sticks it to Scientology, and now Canada is smacking down the recording industry.

I wish America would do something cool with it's court system.

You have the Agoraphobic bloke!

 

[Eleuthera]

I like the standard being held as what they were suing customers for. $20,000 per song/infringement. I remember when they first started going after customers. They were trying to take the houses of the parents who's kid downloaded mabye $500 worth of music if he bought it in a store.

Actually since they were not just copying the music but actively making money of it shouldn't the "fines" be even higher than the $20k a song they give "normal" infringers?

 

[Bentjacket]

I'm not even slightly surprised at this little twist. They've been shafting people left, right and center for decades, artists and consumers alike... the artists moreso, really. The average gold-record artist in the US makes roughly $40,000. Not annually, I mean they make that $40K off of the five-hundred-thousand CDs they sold. Much of that goes back to repay the record company for the money that was fronted for the recording session (which tends to be a minimum of $30,000.) To put that into perspective, an artist with no record label contract can typically make that much by selling 3500-4000 CDs (or even fewer, on occasion) depending on how they've decided to price them. Four thousand CDs isn't easy to sell, mind you... but it's a heck of a lot easier than 500K. Now, I'm not saying you should stop buying CDs or .mp3s and the like from major bands and artists, but if you want to support them, you're better off just buying merch or attending a concert, which is where a vast majority of their income comes from.

I'm not going to say much more than that (mostly because I'm getting dreadfully off-topic,) but here's a quote my instructor shared in one of my music management/marketing courses:

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench; a long plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like dogs. There is also, occasionally, a negative side."