Another Win For Us In The 3 Strikes War!
So the major labels really hate pirating and copyright infringment do they? Enough to make stupid MP’s bow to pressure and introducing ludicrous 3 strikes rules and laws they do anyway! Wait, whats this, a new story about how major labels are accused of $6 billion in copyright infringment, surely not?! Apparently there is a class action lawsuit against the Canadian division of ALL major labels because they get around paying fee’s by putting requests into a backlog dating back to the 1980′s. A little explanation from Michael Geist says;
The claims arise from a longstanding practice of the recording industry in Canada, described in the lawsuit as “exploit now, pay later if at all.” It involves the use of works that are often included in compilation CDs (ie. the top dance tracks of 2009) or live recordings. The record labels create, press, distribute, and sell the CDs, but do not obtain the necessary copyright licences.
Instead, the names of the songs on the CDs are placed on a “pending list”, which signifies that approval and payment is pending. The pending list dates back to the late 1980s, when Canada changed its copyright law by replacing a compulsory licence with the need for specific authorization for each use. It is perhaps better characterized as a copyright infringement admission list, however, since for each use of the work, the record label openly admits that it has not obtained copyright permission and not paid any royalty or fee.
Over the years, the size of the pending list has grown dramatically, now containing over 300,000 songs. From Beyonce to Bruce Springsteen, the artists waiting for payment are far from obscure, as thousands of Canadian and foreign artists have seen their copyrights used without permission and payment.
So I guess it is one rule for labels (who make profit from the infringement) and normal people (who generally speaking, don’t make any money from what they download)
Anyway excuse me while I go and download some Metallica from Napster on my 3G pay as you go phone, so they can’t trace anything back to me…*
*I do not condone this at all. Nobody should ever have to listen to Metallica