from Torrentfreak & Ultimate-Guitar
While the major record labels were dragging file-sharers and
BitTorrent sites to court for copyright infringement, they were
themselves being sued by a conglomerate of artists for exactly the
same offenses. Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal face up to $6
billion in damages for pirating a massive 300,000 tracks.
It is no secret that the major record labels have a double standard
when it comes to copyright. On the one hand they try to put
operators of BitTorrent sites in jail and ruin the lives of single
mothers and students by demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars
in fines, and on the other they sell CDs containing music for which
they haven’t obtained copyright permission.
In the past we’ve
covered many disputes between artists and labels, where the latter
is being accused or even sued for using songs without permission.
Just a few months ago Latin America’s biggest artist, Alejandro
Fernández, sent the police to a Sony Music office to confiscate over 6,000 CDs that the
label refused to return, and this is just the tip of the
iceberg.
The labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of
artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They
simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so
they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s
and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or copyright
infringements) has grown to 300,000.
Growing tired of the labels’ piracy, a group of artists have filed
a class-action lawsuit in
Canada against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local
equivalent of the RIAA. In October last year Warner Music, Sony BMG
Music, EMI Music and Universal Music were sued for illegal use of
thousands of tracks and at present the case is still underway.
How
and why this blatant copyright infringement could go on for years
is a mystery, but the labels’ double standard has been picked up by
the plaintiffs as well. “The conduct of the defendant record
companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to
the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers,”
the artists argue in their claim for damages.
The
suit is still ongoing but already the labels have admitted to owing
at least $50 million for infringing the rights of artists, and this
figure could grow as high as 6 billion. So who are the real pirates
here?
owned.
