Warner Music Sues Again!
from the just-can't-stop-it dept
We've discussed in the past Warner Music's penchant for suing pretty much any new web startup that does anything even remotely innovative around music. So, whaddaya know, Warner Music is suing yet again. This time it's German startup Songbeat, who vows to fight the lawsuit, insisting that what it's doing is perfectly legal.It's fairly amazing that Warner Music -- remember, this was the company that swore it was done fighting its fans -- still thinks that this is a good strategy. Now, before the entertainment industry lawyers who read the site protest "how can you complain about a company defending its rights?" let's think this through a bit. Sure, Warner can defend its rights, but so far, all that's done is pissed off a ton of fans, shut down a bunch of innovative services that fans want to use to support artists, and Warner's sales numbers and stock price reflects this (though, the stock did get a bump yesterday after earnings were less dreadfully awful than expected):
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Filed Under: lawsuits, recording industry, strategy
Companies: songbeat, warner music group
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Righhhhhhht
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Circular logic
The premise of giving Warner Music and others that control is that the common good created by incentives to create music and control use and distribution by the creators outweighs the common good created by allowing for freedom of use among the public. This has now been proven beyond any doubt whatsoever to be completely false. The only reason the law stays intact is because of lobbying efforts by these companies to strengthen their control (that's mainly why they were created and applied to music in the first place as well).
So, Warner bribes politicians to make laws giving WM overbroad rights, convinces judges to interpret laws in a manner inconsistent with the current technological state, and then legitimizes their legal actions by stating that they are merely defending their rights. I think you are giving Warner way to much credit here by granting them that they actually have rights that we are obligated to give them, regardless of whether exercising those "rights" is a dumb idea.
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Re: Circular logic
The problem is that the RIAA members truly feel they are entitled to the level of revenue they enjoyed during the 90's CD price fixing era. Anything less than that and they feel they are being stolen from.
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what is anyone laughing about...?
Remember the old days when making a music mix onto cassette?
Then the prices on audio tapes went up.
People have been sharing music since the inception of music recording.
What's the problem?
Oh, the artist is losing. Or is it the mother company rather that is trying to make larger profits and have convinced the courts that it is unlawful.
If I want to follow an artist's career - I'll go out of my way to buy their latest cd.
C'mon now - the capitalistic hands will always want more never being satisfied. Nor will we the consumer.
The situation we find ourselves in is simply a sign of the times: more, faster, options, more, faster, more...
We have the system we deserve.
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HELL NO, let em die, let all the copywrongs they hold just go up in smoke, and let all their lawers try and find new jobs in an economic downturn.
they had their chance to evolve to meet the new conditions that they face but they chose to bury their heads in the sand.
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its about legality
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Re: its about legality
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qtrax
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maybe the bad economy is good for something
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x
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