EA Has To Back Off Sims Karaoke Due To Licensing Problems

from the yay,-royalties dept

Mon, Aug 25th 2008 1:01am — Mike Masnick

It's been quite a difficult time lately for various online music efforts. Pandora on the verge of shutting down, Muxtape already shut down and now EA is apparently scaling back its online Sims On Stage karaoke offerings over a vague, but unexplained, song licensing issue. How dare people sing along online? You get the feeling that the recording industry would go after people singing in the shower if they could.

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Filed Under: karaoke, licensing, music, royalties, sims
Companies: ea

21 Comments

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ECA (profile), 25 Aug 2008 @ 3:09am

Thats nothing.
At one point the RIAA, wanted to fine Car passengers for listening to music.
Only the purchaser of the CAR had a right to listen to the music.
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Overcast, 25 Aug 2008 @ 3:18am

Har har, what comes around goes around.
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Haha, 25 Aug 2008 @ 3:20am

Singing in the shower
Someone needs to post a parody sketch on YouTube about the RIAA-police jumping on a naked guy singing in the shower for copyright violation. I would LOL so hard.
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zcat, 25 Aug 2008 @ 3:30am

#1
You got it the wrong way around. They don't fine the passengers, they just expect the driver of the car to pay the appropriate performance royalties (Simple to calculate, it's just Use weight * Licensee weight * "Follow the dollar" weight * "Time of day" weight * "General licensing allocation" + premium credits) to ASCAP.

No really, that's the name of the organisation that collects the royalties.. It's pronounced "Ass Cap"
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 4:26am

It's pronounced "Ass Cap"

As in I'm a pop a cap in yo ass?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 5:03am

You all miss the point. The RIAA doesn't want anyone to actually listen to the music. They just want to exercise their divine rights and have people send them money. If people stop sending them money it is theft.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 5:30am

I suspect . . .
This is part of a larger liscensing scheme where EA sells each song seperately and then blames that on a RIAA imposed necessity. We shall see . . .
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MAtt, 25 Aug 2008 @ 6:22am

Re: #1
ASCAP and BMI really do perform a valuable service to musicians. The problem is that they perform a major disservice to business owners by claiming that damn near everything is a "performance." The radio station pays them, and if I play the radio in my business then I have to pay them.
Songwriters need to protect what they create. Unfortunately, the institution which protects them also hurts them by making their music less accessible.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 6:41am

Re: #1 (MAtt)

Here Here! They are shooting themselves in the foot here. Having the music in the Sims would generate interest in the music. I know I was more interested in 80s music because of Grand Theft Auto. Just add another reason why it's better to pirate.
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Old Guy, 25 Aug 2008 @ 6:57am

RIAA
What it boils down to is that the RIAA wants royalties to use the same system as VAT (value added tax)

http://www.eubusiness.com/Finance/vat-in-the-eu-guide
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 7:12am

WTF!!!

BOYCOTT THE RIAA!!!!

NOT 1 CENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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David, 25 Aug 2008 @ 7:16am

Next thing you know...
... RIAA will want to charge you when you get a song stuck in your head...
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Ryan, 25 Aug 2008 @ 7:16am

Good that company is all about MONEY! I bought a used game on eBay BF2142 and I can't even play it because the code is used. They want me to pay for a new code even though I own the game.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 7:17am

Re:
They should of become televangelists.
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Sinatra, 25 Aug 2008 @ 8:15am

The Issue Is......
The licensing issue is the RIAA wouldn't even listen to EA's offer, so EA just said FU!

See, with the RIAA, there is no negotiations. It's OWOTH - Our Way or The Highway

Don't sweat it - the RIAA will be extinct in a few years.
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Chris Howell, 25 Aug 2008 @ 8:56am

licensing
A few years ago I heard that the song "Happy Birthday" had some sort of licensing restrictions.

In 1990, Warner Chappell purchased the company owning the copyright for US$15 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at US$5 million.[7] Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claims that US copyright won't expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to it.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2008 @ 11:03am

Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday Dear _____
Happy Birthday To You

SUE ME!
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Composer, 30 Aug 2008 @ 3:20pm

EA is just cheap
EA just doesn't want to pay $.01 for a song play. It's pathetic that a huge billion dollar corporate company can't just fess up to the fact that they were hoping that artists would bend over and get raped. Rockstar Games I'm sure paid for it's soundtracks to Grand Theft Auto and artist should get at least a couple of cents for SIMS ON STAGE.

(PS, Anonymous Coward, Happy Birthday is in the public domain, singing it till the end of time, make recordings of it and sell it... no one will sue you)
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Francodemore, 3 Dec 2008 @ 12:14am

There's a way to do ...
There is a way to escape RIAA.
EA song's are done and served on their server's therefore this is infringing the IP Rights of every music broadcasted. Now the key is to make the music / songs coming from the user PC itself. This way RIAA wont be able to go after every single user as it would be crazy to do so.
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Anon, 13 Mar 2009 @ 11:45am

Not sure...
Maybe Francodemore, but I can just see the RIAA suing some poor user as an example to the rest of us. Its the single users who get the worst end of the deal. Not the big corporations. As a musician, I can't believe that other musicians are not standing up to this sort of treatment of their customers. As a musician, I would expect the radio to pay for my music, but not a business owner who is playing the free radio station - he can't be responsible for what plays on a public radio station? Now if he was playing a CD that would be different. But a radio station is free. Plus it gets music heard. The bottom line is that the RIAA are not working for the benefit of musicians. They are working for the benefit of themselves. The more rights they infringe upon the more musicians themselves will take a stand and take their business elsewhere- the more power they get the more likely government will intervene. That day will soon come, as they become more and more ridiculous.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2009 @ 12:07pm

Online singing
Let People Sing Online! Let People Sing Online! Let People Sing Online!
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