Beatles accuse EMI of fraud
p2pnet.net News:- Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon widow Yoko Ono, the late George Harrison’s estate and Beatles’ Apple Corps have accused Britain’s EMI of fraud and breach of contract.
Demanding $25,000,000 (£13.2 million) in damages, they also want to reclaim the rights to all The Beatles’ master recordings, says ITV.
The suit claims EMI and affiliate Capitol, “wrongly classified copies of Beatles recordings as destroyed or damaged ’scrap’ but then secretly sold them,” says the BBC, going on:
“It also alleges the number of units sold was under-reported, and the firms classified some recordings as ‘promotional’ and as a result non-royalty bearing, but then sold the material.
“The lawsuit was triggered by an audit of the companies’ books from the period 1994 to 1999, which the band says uncovered allegedly deceitful behaviour.”
A New York State Supreme Court judge has denied EMI’s request for the claim to be thrown out.
EMI is a founder-member of the Big Four Organized Music family.
The others are Warner Music (US), Vivendi Universal (France), and Sony BMG (Japan, Germany) who are being investigated at state and federal level in the US for bribery and price fixing.
They’re currently calling customers (including young children) ‘thieves’ and ‘criminals’ for preferring to use the p2p networks and independent sites rather than corporate download ’services,’ which charge $1 and up for tunes worth only a few pennies or cents.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
ITV – Beatles to sue EMI for millions, August 31, 2006
BBC – Beatles to sue over royalty claim, August 30, 2006
state and federal level – UMG goes down in bribery case, May 12, 2006
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August 31st, 2006 at 9:22 pm
i bet once EMI loses the 25million that will be P2P’s fault somehow
August 31st, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Your nicked how did get there an advance copy of there script?
August 31st, 2006 at 10:15 pm
The Beatles Ripped Off!
Say it isn’t so! Who could imagine that. And by their own company, or at least the one Alen Klein put them in bed with. And then who could imagine the Beatles suing anybody, except perhaps each other or a wife or ex-wife.
September 1st, 2006 at 4:37 am
The cartels have a scheme going on with the audits. The majority of the artists simply can not afford the cost of an audit any more than victims of the sue’em all can afford the cost of justice.
I think in the past I read that audit costs start at $50,000 and go up from there. That makes it out of reach for all but the top 1% of successful artists to even consider an audit. With the well known abilities of the cartels at creative number juggling, the idea that they won’t present correct absolute dollar-to-item figures, and the fact that they must keep two sets of books (one for the public that involves units shipped) and another so that the corporation and government can determine financial status for income and tax purposes, the average artist doesn’t stand a chance of getting an audit.
I wonder why that is so? Could it possibly be that they have something to hide?
PS: 2nd attempt at the validation sting.
September 4th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
“I wonder why that is so? Could it possibly be that they have something to hide?”
This is the problem and the proof thereof.
Let me start by asking, are artists fools?
Artists and songwriters are acting as fools that believe all the accounting and music business fairy tale stories they are told by almost everyone they come in contact with, including “advisors”, managers, lawyers, record companies, publishers, etc.
I have the follwing pages:
PIRACY AND NON PAYMENT FOR USE OF VENEGAS SONGS at
http://rafa_venegas.web.prdigital.com/piracy.htm
There are over 75 records in the market at present in American territory that include songs we (my famuly) own, No one (including Sony) has paid a single cent in royalties since we became owners when our songwriter died 13 years ago.
Venegas v. Sony Copyright Infringement Lawsuit at
http://rafa_venegas.web.prdigital.com/venegas_v_sony_lawsuit.htm
Sony has produced at least 24 records for the american market with our songs. These records have sold millions of copies and Sony has never bothered to request a license from or to pay a single cent in royalties. We sued them in 2001 and the case is more or less stalled for absolutely no valid reason.
Clearly this is the proof that artists and songwriters are being taken for a ride by the generally fraudulent record companies. But not only are the artists being defrauded. they act as if they do do not care about being defrauded.
Not a single artist or sonwriter organization or agent or lawyer or reporter has ever contacted me a a show of support or to inquire about the facts of our situation. After all, if no record company (zero of about 40 record companies that use our songs, including mighty Sony, the worst offender) pays us royalties, how can an artist expect honesty from their record company?
The point is this. If artists, most of whom have signed foolish and legally questionable contracts to begin with, do not care about our plight, they are not caring about their own. If they see proof that record companies hardly ever pay anyone (our data proves this) and do nothing about it, they are fools. If artists and songwriters do not support each other about what music publishers and record companies do (not pay royalties), their victimization will never end.
Said a Nazi era German:
One day they took away my neighbor to the concentration camp. Because of fear, I said nothing. Another day another neighbor was also taken away. Again, I said nothing. Then I was taken away. No one said anything. Then they took all my neighbors away.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com