Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Record Industry Sued

Michael Geist over at The Toronto Star is reporting that the major Canadian music labels are facing a class action lawsuit with penalties possible amounting up to $60 billion dollars.  Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Records Canada who are the primary members of the CRIA (Canadian Record Industry Association) are all facing lawsuits for, "What you might ask?".  What could these virtuous companies that haul grandmothers and students to court be accused of? 

Well, 'Copyright Infringement' of course.

So, while the record industry has been coming down on fileshares, they have been hiding there own dirty little secret.  Apparently,  the record industry of Canada has a practise were by they will release an album without getting the proper licensing and rights to the songs before releasing it.  The record labels will then add the copyright holder to a 'make good' list to deal with later.  The only problem with the list was later never came, as the list was allowed to grow to over 300,000 songs and dates back to the 1980s.

This is absolutely appalling.  They can't be going around like they are the victims of copyright infringement and then turn around and ripe off artists.  I don't believe in piracy of any kind and so it is only right for the record companies to be sued as they have done to others.  The bible was really right when it says "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2.)   The sum of $60 billion was apparently arrived at using the same math the record industry used when prosecuting file sharers.

In any case, I just hope the record industry does the right thing, and finally after decades of ripping people off, makes things right and pays these artists.  After all, the artist were the ones that created these works that record labels have been profiting off from.

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