p2pnet - rss feed: Major bands sue Sony Music
p2p news / p2pnet: With word of the huge Canadian pro-musician-led revolution echoing everywhere but (predictably) in the entertainment cartel controlled media, two major US bands are suing Big Four Organized Music gang member Sony Music “in the amount of millions of dollars ” for failing to pay what it owes.
In a class action, “Sony Music is not paying its recording artists 50% of the net licensing revenue received by Sony Music in connection with the master recordings licensed to Apple and other third party providers of digital downloads, as Sony Music is contractually obligated to do,” say lawyers representing the Allman Brothers (top) and Cheap Trick.
“Instead of paying its recording artists the approximate 30 cents of the 70 cents it receives for digital downloads (after deducting payments to music publishers), the suit alleges that Sony Music wrongfully treats each download as a sale of a physical phonorecord (i.e. a CD or cassette tape), only paying on 85% of such “sales” (due to a fiction that there is breakage of product), deducting a 20% fee for container/packaging charges associated with the digital downloads (although there are none), and reducing its payments by a further 50% “audiofile” deduction, yielding a payment to the Sony Music recording artist of approximately 4 1/2 cents per digital download.
“According to the complaint filed, The Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick and other members of this class action have been damaged in the amount of millions of dollars through the loss of royalty payments which Sony Music has retained for its own benefit in breach of the applicable contractual record royalty provisions.”
In Canada, the new the Canadian Music Creators Coalition states, “Fans who share music are not thieves or pirates. Sharing music has been happening for decades.”
CMCC members include, Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41, Stars, Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace), Dave Bidini (Rheostatics), Billy Talent, John K. Samson (Weakerthans), Broken Social Scene, Sloan, Andrew Cash and Bob Wiseman.
And in the US, the other members of the Organized Music cartel, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony and its partner BMG, are being investigated by federal and state authorities for alleged bribery and price fixing.
Also See:
pro-musician-led - ‘Fans who share music aren’t thieves’, April 26, 2006
lawyers - Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick File Record Industry Class Action Lawsuit Against Sony, April 27, 2006
April 28th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
I see the end of the RIAA and the likes who profit off the hard work of creative people. Artist can at last do without them. The current model is Jurasic. Artist can now be their own recording studio and their own publishers thanks to the internet and software specifically created for artists. I don’t think you’d need to have a contract with any of the big four thugs in order to be able to publish your own catalogue on iTunes.
April 28th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Sadly this isn’t anything new. As the RIAA logo says, Screwing artists over for over 50 years.
April 28th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
are NOT enough. ALL musicians should be in on this. Not until then will the RIAA go down in the flames it should be burning in, I.E.: HELL!
That goes for the MPAA, also, for that matter.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
Sony has produced 16 or more CD with songs we own, starting on 1997. They staetred out without any licenses to use our songs. We asked proposed a sttlement with Sony, while warning them that a music publisher was falsely representing to own the songs. Sony went and made a deal with the phony owner of the songs.
We sued Sony in 2001. Last week at a hearing Sony claimed it acted in good faith because it had obtained licenses from the phony owner (after selling records without any licenses, including a phony one for a while). That was good faith?
Sony now wants to bring in the phony owner into the lawsuit so that (I guess) they are the ones made responsible for the making of unlicensed CD or at leas pay Sony whatever damages Sony has to pay us. Sony claims it acted in good faith because they were licensed by the (known to Sony) phony owner of our songs.
We should have been as lucy as the Allman Brothers and Cheap Trick who are receiving 30 percent of what is due them, if that is the case. We got nothing, for 16 records. One of these records sold over five million copies. The case is 01cv1216 (Jaime Pieras, Judge) at Puerto Rico federal court.
BTW, on another lawsuit we sued the phony owner music publisher and the judge did not find their unlawful action of licensing our songs as infringement and gave us no damages as a result. How do you like them apples!
We should be so lucky.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
Sony is still making/selling the recordd
April 29th, 2006 at 1:15 am
And they expected to get away with that on digital downloads?
April 29th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Agh but I recall somewhere that you do need a record label in order to be on the iTunes website - I’m pretty sure Apple is refusing to deal with the artists one on one. Its the same with Napster2 - they only accept signed artists - its all part of the greater - plan to ensure artists are dependent on record lables !
April 29th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
OK let me get this straight. Sony chases kids for this nonlaw called dwnloading files but when it comes to paying artists these files are called something else akin to a busted up cd. Oh my, are we not trying to screw the world.
However the world is still asleep. If you see a boycotting of all this “music” coming from these creeps you will know the world awakes. Boycotting will hurt the RIAA mafia, chase away the artists supporting them and bring in new art. It is happening and the big corps and their idiot suits are going to lose big time.
Boycott the lot of them now.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:52 pm
I can imagin the RIAA’s reply:
Well, they use the n=best 1’s and 0’s to make the digital bit’s and that of course costs money. And every now and then a 2 slips in making a defective bit, and you can’t sell a defective bit.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Does the DRM restriction in the Apple or Windows format come free to the Publisher? I’m wondering if the record label pays a fee to use the DRM, or if the vendor (ITUNES) is responsible for encoding/drming. In some of our stuff, we pay a liscensing fee on every unit we sell.
Don’t know, just curious.
B
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:04 am
Update on the case 01cv1216.
Recently, on June 16, 2005, five years after the filing of the lawsuit, Sony has filed a thir party complaint against the phony music publisher, for falsely representing themselves as owners of our songs.
Says Sony in the complaint:
“Third Party Defendants are liable for all of Plaintiffs claims against
Sony Discos. Consequently, should this Court find against Sony Discos on any or all of the claims asserted against it, Third Party Defendants should be held responsible for any amount of damages that may be imposed, including the statutory award of attorneys fees, if any.”
Meanig: The wait for payment of royalties and whatever damages we deserve will continue. The production of the infringing CDs started about 10 years ago and to date we have not seen a single cent of the over 5 million records sold. Thank you very much Sony, for being so considerate towards songwriters and their heirs.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.venegas.com