Edwyn Collins Can't Give Away His Music Thanks To MySpace, Warner Music
from the thanks-guys dept
Mesanna alerts us to a blog post from the wife/manager of pop singer Edwyn Collins discussing the hellish experience she's gone through trying to offer up Collins' most famous song, A Girl Like You, on MySpace. Collins owns the copyright and wants the music to be freely downloadable by anyone, but Warner Music claimed that it owns the copyright, even though it does not:At the beginning of this year I noticed that Edwyn's myspace had gone bit wonky and I tried to upload the tracks back on to the music player. His most famous track, which he owns the copyright in, as he does for most of the music he's recorded in his life (preferring to go it alone than have his music trapped "in perpetuity" to use the contract language of the major record company) is called A Girl Like You. It's quite famous. Lo and behold, it would not upload, I was told Edwyn was attempting to breach a copyright and he was sent to the Orwellian myspace copyright re-education page. Quite chilling, actually. I naturally blew my stack and wrote to myspace on his behalf demanding to know who the hell was claiming copyright of Edwyn's track? Which, incidentally, he always made freely available for download on myspace, something which amazed his followers. Eventually, after HUGE difficulty, I was told Warner Music Group were claiming it. I found a nice lawyer guy at Warners, very apologetic, promised to get it sorted, but all these months later it isn't. That is because Myspace are not equipped to deal with the notion that anyone other than a major can claim a copyright. Warner's were one of the lead petitioners in the attempt to put those three stoner lads in Sweden in prison recently, remember.Meanwhile, the song which Collins wants to give away, but cannot, is being sold all over the internet... but not by Collins. Instead, it's by major labels who have no right to do so, according to Collins' manager:
A Girl Like You is available FOR SALE all over the internet. Not by Edwyn, by all sorts of respectable major labels whose licence to sell it ran out years ago and who do not account to him. Attempting to make them cease and desist would use up the rest of my life. Because this is what they do and what they've always done.Wait... major labels... selling a song they don't have the right to, and not giving any of the money back to the artist? That seems a hell of a lot worse than just sharing a song for non-commercial reasons, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, Collins has no problem with the sharing of bootlegs:
Andrew Loog Oldham said that getting ripped off (by the industry) was your entrance fee to the music business of the sixties, so get over it. He's right and things have not changed. We are very over it, but nonetheless aware of who the biggest bootleggers around are. It's not the filesharers. Personally, we've always loved bootlegs. Even when Edwyn was really skint at the fag end of the eighties, I remember being in Camden market and seeing some tapes of a couple of his shows on sale. I tried to buy them but the stallholder somehow knew who I was and said "free to the management." I failed to see how that guy selling tapes of Edwyn or even U2 or anybody on the list of signatories above could harm their career.And... then at the end, she's got a nice little message for the Featured Artist Coalition and its silly petition to try to stop file sharing:
The gig's up. You might as well take a position about when you want the sun to come up in the morning. It's over. Now let's get on with working out a wonderful new way for music lovers to enjoy music for free or for a small subscription that makes it legal and easy to hear ANYTHING and allows the artist to reap the rewards of such freedom of access. Viva la revolucion!
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Filed Under: bootleg, copyright, edwyn collins, free, music
Companies: myspace, warner music group
Reader Comments
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Take some heart
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Re: Take some heart ... or ... whats good for the goose is ...
Under certain circumstances, the infringement may also constitute a criminal misdemeanor or felony, which would be prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
My advice contact the FBI use the laws put in place by the Recording Industry against them .....
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Re: Re: Take some heart ... or ... whats good for the goose is ...
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Time to sue?
Wouldn't a fast track to court be a way to cease the selling as well as recoup $80,000 per infringement and possibly wake this industry up?
Damn, at $80k per infringement, they'd retire peacefully. I could see billions made from this lawsuit, possibly putting these offenders out of business.
Go, Collins! Sue these idiots into non-existence!
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Re: Time to sue?
I hope the EFF takes this up or something.
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Re: Time to sue?
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Ouch For the Record Companies
Plus, I'm sure the record companies keep exact data about how many times each song has been sold. And it's not like they can claim ignorance of copyright laws in court, or that such a judgement per song is way too high to be reasonable . . .
"10,000 downloads, you say? That'll be $90,000,000 please. Would you like to pay by check?"
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Re: Ouch For the Record Companies
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Re: Ouch For the Record Companies
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Defense in next RIAA lawsuit
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Re: Defense in next RIAA lawsuit
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No, that IS due process these days.
Corpocracy sucks.
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Yesss!
I will certainly check out her husbands music now.
Cheers and god bless!
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Re:
Nice cheap shot. If it's so common for TD to intentionally omit facts to make a point, it won't be so hard for you to list some examples, right?
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Re: Don't loose hope
Hang in there...these Majors will be gone soon and when they finally give up the ghost new musical and youth culture movements will be born.
bbb
wheatus.com
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I wish they would cease and no longer exist.
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Sue them and I will gladly contribute to help pay any legal costs. If it puts the record labels a trouble spot then it will be well worth the money.
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Re:
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Work = right to money
That would be horrible.
Aside, I've designed a new automobile, and am expecting millions. It consumes 12L of gas to go 5 meters (I think that's like 1.5 hogheads to the furlong, for you non-metric types), the wheels are square so the ride's a little jerky, and the seats are made of jagged rusty metal, so when you sit on them you get cuts and ass-tetanus. Now where's my money?!!
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Re: Work = right to money
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Sue them all, sue them all to hell!!
Ms Collins loses: it's a blow for against copyright.
Ms Collins wins: it's a blow against a copyright-abuser.
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Re: Sue them all, sue them all to hell!!
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I will have to watch this one....
But in this case, a clear owner exists. One willing to give their content to their fans for free. And Time Warner is attempting to steal this content? In this case, they are not stealing from the public domain, but from a person.
We should do Whatever we can do to encourage Collins to fight at least Time Warner. They should pay their own established rate (however many thousands) to an ACTUAL Person!
And I absolutely agree with Ragnar Krempel that this is a no lose scenario. A loss would be a strike against copyright, or a win would require establish Time Warner as just another "Pirate Bay".
I would only beg Collins not to settle. No matter what, I think legal action would swiftly result in an attempt by Time Warner to settle.
The copyright cartel is absolutely evil, but they are not stupid.
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Edwyn is hail and hearty and after four years hard graft, performing and recording again. These days we don't much sweat the small stuff. And small stuff is an increasingly accurate description of the old behemoth record companies as they flail around desperately trying to protect their "property."
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I believe that they could keep track these things but they don't really want to. That's the kind of thing US courts call "willful blindness" and it's no excuse. In this case, as described so far, they have even been informed and yet they still persist so they have even less of an excuse.
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I am not normally pro-lawsuit, but this issue should absolutely be brought to court, the labels are maniacal copyright fanaticists when it 'works' in their favor, they need to be shown the other side of the sword.
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I have to say you are a kind and generous soul. Many of us, even myself, are of the mind that making Time Warner feel the pain is worth the cost. But it is also true that one can take the high road consistently, rather than only with one's friends.
I applaud the understanding and forgiving tone of your reply, and only regret that Time Warner cannot possibly understand the contrast between your position and theirs.
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As for your legal situation, I would be more than happy to donate a large amount of money for you to fight this on principal alone. I dare say there are millions of people who would like to see the "music industry" get a taste of their own medicine. If you start a website explaining your situation and soliciting donations, I am sure that within a week you will have your fighting fund.
I would even be willing to help out in non financial ways.
I wish you and Edwyn all the best and a truely hope you will consider legal action against these theiving bastards.
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Well this is odd
What did have that track on it was the soundtrack to the film Empire Records, but that was released on A&M, which is owned by Universal.
Now, even if Collins didn't own all the copyrights to his songs by some contract magic or other, where does Warner enter the discussion?
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Re: Well this is odd
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copyright mythology
Dear Other Artists,
If you don't want your music leaked then don't give it to anyone you think might leak it. If your "record deal" stipulates you must then grow a pair and try to get out of it...you are in the life you chose and chastising the working people who made it all possible for you is some spoiled brat bullshit.
Home taping didn't kill music in the late 70'early 80's, it helped it. So does piracy help the cream rise to the top today. The artificial market place you were used to is being replaced by a real one.
Dear Techdirt Thinkers,
Making music and selling it for a REASONABLE profit on the internet are not as complicated as my defunct 78 page agreement with a certain Major Label or the RIAA would have you believe. Licensing IP to outlets who seek to profit from it is even easier. Any ML artists who talk down to you are trying to protect an unsustainable and corrupt system that has failed upward for decades and can no longer afford to hold up the weight at the top. The plan, as always, is to make you pay more for less. Resist!
Go True Indie Music Only,
brendan b brown
wheatus.com
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Re: copyright mythology
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Furthermore, send a DMCA takedown to the Time Warner website, along with documentation so that the site can be shut down.
I will be forwarding this story on to the national newspapers for further investigation, if you wish.
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Get off your butt and DO something - then we might be more inclined to help out.....
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I ask you to take a minute to think about those poor souls who have been unfairly accused but still had to pay thousands of dollars rather than go up against that huuuuuuge monster that the RIAA had setup to stamp and crush the skulls of non-payers, please then take another minute to think of all the artists the majors have exploited over the decades... and finally take a moment to think about what they would have done if the positions were reversed even though you had no evil intent.
While I am not a person to go "you owe it to your X" where X would be country/fans/family/humankind/mankind/god etc I think you should consider the unique position you find yourself in and *maybe* go after the monster just the balance the scales of justice.
As stated above, we the fans, will try to support you as well with donations and organizations like the EFF too would most probably be willing to help - if you want to go ahead with it.
If you do go ahead with it, it can only be a win for everyone including your husband's music due to the added exposure of nearly everyone (blogs,sites,news) picking this up. While before this i never really heard of your husbands music I have now sampled some of his stuff and... i like it.
Give others a chance to discover his music as well, better than paid advertising ever could and at the same time notch one up for justice.
You would have public opinion on your side, as well as the thousands of innocent people the RIAA has sued, tens or hundreds of millions like me who hate the industry, as well as a vast number of college students, single parents, the sick, the elderly, the dying... and i daresay even that person who was dead when the RIAA said he was infringing (and maybe even those printers that the RIAA's 'infringement engine' pointed its fingers to for downloading 'copyrighted' material).
Please please please dont just discard this but if I may quote a cliche "think of the bigger picture".
Regards,
Ryan
www.eZee.se
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i dnt
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k
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you wont play nice in our sand box
sounds like some sort of law is being broken at least on s civil level
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Give it away
Most of our tracks have been released under a creative commons license.
We are an independent record label not a big bad corporation out to sue you for file sharing, we WANT you to spread our music around.
With such an overcrowded market place giving away your music is essential in my opinion. The biggest problem for emerging indie artists today is obscurity, not piracy. To find out more listen to The Antiqcool Podcast
http://antiqcool.podbean.com/2010/01/22/the-antiqcool-podcast-episode-1-how-can-you-be-a-part-of-o ur-success/
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