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Major labels to face lawsuits from artists |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Monday, 03 March 2008 |
 Some of the biggest names in music have not seen any money from
copyright infringement settlements and they are considering legal actions against the record labels in order to get the money that should be theirs.
According to the New York Times, Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI
settled claims with Napster, Kazaa and Bolt.com that could be in the millions. Napster alone had to cough up
$270 million.
This does not even include the deal that these major labels, including Sony BMG, struck with YouTube that included revenue participation.
John Branca, a lawyer who has represented Korn, Don Henley, and The Rolling Stones said
Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists
will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for. Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon. Record label sources said corporate bosses are still deciding on how best to
split the money. However, these sources said that after the labels recouped their legal expenses, there
wasn't much left to pass along to the artists.
They always claim to have the artists' interest when they are fighting these file sharing or piracy suits but when it comes to divvying up the money from the settlement, the artists take a back seat once again.
Why do we even need labels nowadays that take most of the money from the artists? You can practically distribute your music to most of the connected world for pennies. All you really need is a promoter/manager that is technology savvy and you're pretty much set.
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