Record Labels Face $6 Billion Damages for Pirating Artists

Record Labels Face $6 Billion Damages for Pirating Artists

torrentfreak.com

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 liv

(visit the link for the full news article)

If records companies ever want to attempt to take a moral high ground over torrent websites, it is time for them to eliminate this double standard and practice what they preach. Furthermore, anti-piracy laws that the RIAA so wants to implement will do very little to prevent the problem of piracy, but will only be a breach of privacy.

Thanks.

[edit on 13/12/2009 by C0bzz]

YAY!!! I hope they Win! For too long record labels have cheated artists out of their own intellectual property. Time they get bit in the AZZ

Well, Im sorry to say, but the music industry has takin off to a whole other level. This is the digital age, where anything you can think of can be downloaded. The independant labels and independant artists are not so worried about getting a record contract as much anymore because they can do it themselves on the internet(with some help from sites such as AudioLife who package, distribute, and print all of your merchandise for you, taking less of a fee than any label would). These record companies are dying, and this is why you see stuff like this happening from people within their own labels. They need to get with the times and find out a way to resolve this BS issue, because they are doing nothing but hurting their own pockets in the meantime.

[edit on 13-12-2009 by Common Good]

I honestly don't see a problem with pirating music. There are always people who are still gonna buy their CD's, and go to their concerts, so the artists can't say they're not making any cash. And furthermore I was under the impression that people were musicians so people around the world could here them, and experience and understand their message. If I was a huge artist I would give two s##ts about people downloading my stuff, I would be happy that people like me enough to do it!

woo hooo this is great news for aspiring artists

This is why I have my own label and own distro.
I keep what I make...
no shady middle man or BS.

reply to post by C0bzz


Hollywood and music, steal all the time. The hypocrites talking about people stealing there rights, when they steal there ideas and songs from others.

Copyright infringement is to protect the hypocrites.

I cannot believe how quickly this thread seems to have dropped.. This topic is far too important to let fall off into nothingness in the depths of cyberland.

The record company shills are no doubt hoping that this thread will soon be forgotten, but that would be a huge injustice to each of us that pay a recordable media storage tax, or who have felt the barbed sting of accusations by those shills.

For years now, we have heard of the plight of the recording artist being screwed by the 60 year old woman criminal who has a granddaughter that happened to download and share a cd or two of songs. These people with absolutely no financial gain or real criminal intent have been demonized by both RIAA and CRIA as the downfall of the entertainment industry. They have been penalized and sued into bankruptcy, their lives destroyed to set example to others that might test their luck against BIG MEDIA.

We see now, that true criminal intent, the intent to financially gain at the willful expense of real recording artists has been part of the daily business model of BIG MEDIA for at least 29 years!! Yet the shills fall silent. Perhaps it's because it is a Sunday, and they must rest? Or perhaps this story/thread has pulled the carpet back and revealed the true nature of that same recording industry.

Well, I for one wish I could do more than simply flag and star this thread. It is high time that the recoding industry gets a taste of what they have been handing out for all of these years. And for those that claim only the recording industry was able in the years past to bring an artist into the light, I suggest you read a little on Frank Zappa.

Thanks for reading
..Ex

reply to post by C0bzz


Don't you love this kinda news? I know I do..
Well Jimi Hendrix's new album Valleys Of Neptune just finished downloading, check ya later.

I hope the record companies have to pay $250000 per copy per song to the artists affected, or whatever outrageous amounts they try to sue average people for.

I don't know if it is true or not, but I have heard that independent artists are actually having more success by simply distributing their music for free and then asking for donations and doing concerts and stuff like that, rather than going to a record company. Why? If I buy a CD for $15-20, the artist gets like $1-2 or something. If I download their music, and think hey this stuff is great, and donate five or ten bucks on paypal on their website, the artist made MORE from me than if I had actually bought their CD. Sure, the record label suffers in that model, but personally, I don't care about them; I'd cheer if they all went out of business.

And behind the screwing of the public and of artists

we know it's the Usual Suspects

GREEEEEEEEEEEEED


In the end, everyone decent will have bailed this planet, leaving it to the Usual Suspects and their GREEEEEEEEEEED

and their LUST to CONTROL !


And God will be happy in his heaven, won't he ? For aren't they his favourites ?

I love it. What goes around comes around. I hope the record labels lose and lose big time. It is about time they got back some of what they have been dishing out. It would be nice to see a few of them go out of business from this. Yes, I would like to see them hurt bad by this because of they way they have been going after kids for $100,000 plus fines for just downloading a few songs.

Originally posted by kingoftheworld
I honestly don't see a problem with pirating music. There are always people who are still gonna buy their CD's, and go to their concerts, so the artists can't say they're not making any cash. And furthermore I was under the impression that people were musicians so people around the world could here them, and experience and understand their message. If I was a huge artist I would give two s##ts about people downloading my stuff, I would be happy that people like me enough to do it!

The music industry is about as much for creating music than the make-up industry is to make people beautiful. As for the majority of mainstream artists do you really think they care for anything other than their pay check? (That part is self-evident as you get it drilled into you everytime you turn on the radio) You can almost guarantee that any big name artist signed to a corporate diversifing label has a message that only the brain washed superficial middle-class youth would care to heed.
Im meaning to post a thread about the music industry but I need to rack up the posts first.