Singer Claims Sony Music 'Pirated' His Songs; Has Police Raid Their Offices
from the all-for-the-artists... dept
One thing that's consistent throughout all of the stories we see concerning the recording industry trying to support its position in lawsuits, and in front of politicians, the press and the public, is that it's doing all of this to help the "artists" it represents. Of course, that's laughable, given just how many stories we've seen of artists screwed over by the major labels. The record labels have never represented the artists' best interests. For yet another example, we head south of the border, where Alejandro Fernandez is claiming that Sony Music "pirated" his music. He used to have a contract with Sony, but when he completed that contract, he moved over to Universal Music. Yet, Sony still prepared to put out a CD of "unreleased material" by Fernandez. Fernandez claims that the works are unauthorized, and even had the police in Mexico raid Sony Music's offices and confiscate the CDs.All in all, this comes down to a basic contract dispute. Sony Music claims that it has the right to do whatever it wants with any music recorded under the contract. Fernandez claims the rights were limited to seven albums -- which were all done -- and do not extend to material that went unreleased. This sounds similar to the dispute last month, where Morrissey told fans not to buy a new box set that EMI was putting out. Either way, it's yet another example that labels' interests and artists' interests are not aligned.
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Filed Under: alejandro fernandez, contracts, copyright, mexico
Companies: sony music
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Now I wonder...
Big labels. Fucking hypocrites.
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Re: Now I wonder...
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Re: Re: Now I wonder...
Assumptive truth ... that is the real issue.
btw ... I see proper English is a bit of a challenge.
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Re: Re: Now I wonder...
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Re: Now I wonder...
They no different to the other major labels they would screw him down to a contract that would mean they got the royalties.
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They have big money which they use to bully and beat the rest of the world into giving them more money.
Welcome to Planet Earth!
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Re:
Regardless, it's nice to hear about one of the MAFIAA get raided for a change!
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Haha Sony
You guys so have this and so much more coming to you.
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It's a contract dispute, then?
That two parties that undertake a contract together want different things is part of a contracts purpose. That afterwards the two parties fight over how the resulting assets are split is hardly unusual.
A label and an artist having 'unaligned interests' should be obvious; so do many people who enter into contracts. It doesn't mean there is anything sinister or unusual to it.
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Re: It's a contract dispute, then?
Or to look at it differently, this will be the 12th comment on an apparently uninteresting-to-SteveD story, to which SteveD also commented, unless someone slides one in before I finish typing this.
Also, meta.
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Re: It's a contract dispute, then?
"Not to get short with Mike, but is there really much of interest to this story?"
Yes. Labels say they want to help artists. Labels hurt artists. Ergo, labels lie. We can then assume they are also lying about other stuff, like, oh I don't know, every statistic they talk about.
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Re: It's a contract dispute, then?
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payback's a bitch
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Sony vs. Joel Tenenbaum
Hmm, lets see here. Based on these numbers it looks like Sony should be out between 1 and 4 billion dollars.
I wonder if 80k per song is still reasonable.
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It might suck, but that's a standard contract, but we wouldn't want anything like contract law to get in Mike's way as he rails against a business model he finds obsolete.
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I suspect you're talking out of your ass.
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I thought I was pretty clear in the post that I believe this is a contract dispute.
You act as if I ignored that, when I did not (though, many of the other stories about this topic did ignore it).
But, the point that I was making -- which I thought was more interesting -- is that it shows how the interests of the labels and the artists often diverge. Are you denying that, or are you just trying do distract by trying to make this about something that I didn't say?
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My problem with this is I disagree on it being interesting; it almost seems like stating the obvious. Such interests can diverge just as they do in every form of business contract.
But perhaps this isn't what really bugs me. I think that might be the title, and a comment-threat full of people gloating over the 'evil record companies'.
What has Techdirt become?
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Indeed. But it highlights the separation here. The issue is that the labels often claim that they represent artists. I think it's worth reminding people that's not true.
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:=/
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hahah, what comes around goes around.
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HIs contract
It sucks, but no one made him sign that contract and he should do the right thing and honor his contract, just as the label should (which I am sure they have violated the terms in some way(s)).
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Re: HIs contract
We have to wait for more information on this before we can really say one way or the other. Sony has says they have rights to the music. The artist's lawyer states that isn't in the previous contract. Up to the courts at this point.
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Re: HIs contract
To me, the interesting question is who owns the copyright in these songs. If they were created as works made for hire, then Sony does. If they were created as works for the artist subject to a prior assignment to Sony, then a whole new family of issues arises. For instance, if the contract is governed by California contract law or is enforceable in the federal courts located in California, prior assignments may themselves be unenforceable.
In other words, notwithstanding any contract it seems possible to me that the artist is on solid ground. It will depend on a lot of facts that the story does not reveal.
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THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME SONY HAVE RIPPED OFF AN ARTIST!
ok here is the link to the full story:
http://www.renegaderhythms.com/home.html?main=http://www.renegaderhythms.com/articles/ur/son y_correspondence.html#121099
i have no doubt that this will continue in the future and regardless of who they do this to they will always try to force themselves onto any thing they think will make money
BOYCOTT THE BIG BUSINESS
ALL MUSICIANS NEED TO GO INDEPENDENT
NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL NEVER DIE NOR WILL IT BOW DOWN TO CORPORATE PRESSURE
FILE SHARERS ARE NOT THIEVES
MIDDLE FINGER UP TO THEM ALL
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