Warner Music Continues The Trend: No Innovation Unless It Owns A Piece Of It
from the chilling-effects dept
Warner Music has a rather long history of being first in line to sue pretty much any new and innovative online music service out there. While it doesn't get nearly as much attention, we've heard repeatedly from people that Warner offers many of those sites a deal: give us a big chunk of the company and we'll drop the lawsuit. The lawsuit is merely a big stick used in the "negotiation" to get a piece of the company. So, when you see a lawsuit and then a settlement, involving Warner Music, often the reason is because the other company agreed to hand over a hefty chunk of equity. It's difficult to think of any major online music service that Warner hasn't threatened, sued or received an equity chunk from.According to TechCrunch, that activity on Warner Music's part has now killed off an attempt by Facebook to open up its own music service. The company had been working for nearly a year on such a service, but Warner simply wouldn't allow it -- especially since it already had ownership stakes from a bunch of other players, and didn't want the competition. This is exactly the sort of chilling effect on innovation that we're consistently talking about. It's rather ridiculous that one company can hold up new and useful ways of listening to and sharing music. When things like the DMCA and other copyright extensions came out, the RIAA insisted that it would never try to block any new devices or services, but its members -- and Warner Music, in particular -- have never lived up to that agreement. Warner Music especially overvalues the music, and undervalues any service that makes that music more valuable -- and thus needs to block or kill off any such service that it can't own in some way. That's not the intention of copyright law, at all. In fact, it's a drastic abuse of copyright law.
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Filed Under: chilling effects, innovation, lawsuits, music
Companies: facebook, warner music group
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antitrust?
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Archive.org
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Faith in Government
It was explicitly stated by the framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that when the existing government fails to uphold its contract with the people, it is the latter's right and duty to rebel against it--this was the entire justification for the American Revolution.
As has been pointed out before, music sales are not being particularly hit hard by file sharing. Rather than attempting to initiate change via government and legal action, a grassroots movement of civil disobedience needs to be made to force it. Do not buy anything owned by Warner music. Make it so difficult for them to profit that they are forced to either sue everybody or give up. In retrospect, everybody agrees that such ideas were noble for racial equality and gender equality--there's no reason why similar actions cannot be taken now, much more easily with less risk of punishment.
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Re: Faith in Government
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Re: Faith in Government
Personally, I'd love to see the Declaration of Independence written into law in some way.
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Re: Faith in Government
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Big Brother is alive and well...perhaps
As a listed entity, Warner needs to disclose activities that materially impact it's operations.
Likewise any listed entity that Warner sues.
Which means this becomes public domain information - and private companies are not going to take threats to their livelyhood lying down, they would go PR on Warner ASAP the threat came in.
So if you are going to claim that "often...the other company agreed to hand over a hefty chunk of equity" it should be pretty easy to point to the evidence.
IMHO this drivel adds nothing to a reasoned debate around music services (or indeed, our duty to rebel).
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Re: Big Brother is alive and well...perhaps
Nobody doubts that. What people are complaining about here is that Warner seems to be very good at shutting down activities that would *positively* impact its operations. That fact that this makes no sense is the core of these discussions.
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Re: Big Brother is alive and well...perhaps
Not so. Look at both Muxtape and Mixwit -- both of which shut down without any lawsuit being filed, but both were threatened.
But, as for active lawsuits, WMG has sued a bunch... including (off the top of my head): iMeem, Project Playlist, Seeqpod. It also took a stake in both iMeem and Lala.
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“Protect”
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This is techdirt's opinion. Perhaps in the interest of a give and take discussion WMG should be presented the opportunity to present its side of the story. This only seems fair.
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Re:
This is techdirt's opinion. Perhaps in the interest of a give and take discussion WMG should be presented the opportunity to present its side of the story. This only seems fair.
Representatives from Warner Music are *well aware* that they are free to respond in this forum whenever they would like. They have chosen not to do so, explicitly.
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The problem is that most of the majors are run by suits who are more concerned about whether they'll get that new Mercedes or be able to make the payment on their mansion and aren't thinking about how best to operate in the changing market. There most definitely are people on the internet who are parasites and taking advantage, but I would venture to guess that there are a lot more who are willing to work with the labels and offer them something in return for access. But the majors aren't interested unless they can monopolize the market. I do giggle with glee when I see a major take a hit, because they've created a market where it's hard for an honest label to make a living. But then again, I also know of a few labels who are keeping their heads way above water by adapting.
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Re:
You can also sell nitrogen, and make a decent living from farmers. But when you start accusing anyone who grows vegetables of stealing your nitrogen, regardless (or in lieu) of any facts, demanding a tax from everyone (farmer or not) and just generally throwing your weight around just becuase you can legally (and lets face it, if you have enough money, you can almost decide what's legal), does that mean we should just throw our hands up and say "Well, they have a legal right..."
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