More Fraud Investigations Over Recording Industry Execs; Swiss IFPI Boss Resigns

from the well,-look-at-that dept

Fri, Jul 8th 2011 2:00pm — Mike Masnick

Following the news of corruption charges in Spain over SGAE execs, comes the news that the head of the IFPI in Switzerland has been forced to resign over some sort of scheme to avoid paying taxes. The details are a bit convoluted, but, basically, it sounds like he was able to route some IFPI things through a separate company he ran, in order to get a more favorable tax position. The IFPI is trying to throw the guy under the bus, but the report suggests other IFPI honchos knew all about the scheme. I find it amusing, by the way, that our regular commenters, who (falsely) call me a criminal, haven't had anything to say about these music industry folks and their scams.

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Filed Under: switzerland, tax evasion
Companies: ifpi

44 Comments

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:Lobo Santo (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:15pm

It'd be nice
It'd be awful nice if those few rare gems in the United States military-industrial complex who're still interested in justice started doing something like this to the MAFIAA.
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Dirk Poot (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:17pm

Make that three...
BUMA/Stemra of the Netherlands is in hot water as well.
Dutch opposition party D66 requested an inquiry into the organisation, describing it as poorly managed and non-transparent. Losing � 14Million of artists revenues didn't help things either.

Translated WebWereld article: http://is.gd/8YXLhi
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:23pm

It's simple Mike, on the one hand we have people in the "entertainment" businesses on the other hand we have pirates.
Piracy sounds like it should cost the industry money, it's on e of those common sense things that everyone knows without having to think about it. Just like we know that the world can't be a globe(we'd fall off) so it must be flat and that stars aren't massive balls of flaming gas but tiny little pinpricks of light, it's just obvious, so piracy costs money.

Sure the figures don't actually bear that out in any way whatsoever, but that doesn't stop it being common sense.

Major labels, licensing organisations etc are what bring in money so why focus on minor hiccups with them, sometimes things go wrong and when they do those issues get addressed which is what's happening.
Whatever, issues around those are complex and difficult to follow, what's easy to follow is that piracy is theft and piracy is increasing despite all the efforts made so far.
Any idiot can grasp that point so they do.
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Hephaestus (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:31pm

You know full well the only reason they come here, is to shout down dissenters to the party line, and to prevent any meaningful conversations. Where industry wrong doings are concerned they ignore it, in the hopes it will go away.

All in all its pretty much politics as usual ...

1) Get as many people (blogs, etc) as you can to praise what you are doing and disallow or censor comments.
2) Shout down and disrupt any actual conversations.
3) Ignore any negatives in your industry unless they gain popular traction.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:32pm

Embezzling money is a minor hiccup eh? Why the audacity of the governments to think corruption could cause the artists they claim to represent to lose money. This from the paragons of virtue when presenting their 'we gotta do something cause piracy is stealing all our money'.

Again it is shown that money is the root of all evil when it comes to morality. So how long till a friendly investigating committee comes to visit in the US?

How much of the artist's money will it take to defend them?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:38pm

Speaking as a musician...
...I'm FAR more worried about being ripped off by executives, agents, licensing organizations, venue owners, managers, and all the other middlemen than I am by fans.

These recent disclosures simply reinforce what I've known for 40 years: anybody standing between musicians and music afficionados is there because they have their hand in someone's pocket.
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HothMonster, 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:42pm

Hey these guys are fighting a WAR its a tough and stressful job any you know they DESERVE to MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, damn thought I could get through that. Being a shill must be harder than I thought.
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MrWilson, 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:48pm

Re:
You must have missed the part in the shill job description that stated, "must have no sense of humor and a blind acceptance of cognitive dissonance to apply."
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Atkray (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 2:56pm

Let me try
I can't believe how blindly you all follow little mikee. These are simply allegations and until proven in a court these businessmen are innocent. It isn't like they stole music and we have a clear recored of their IP address to clearly identify them as criminals.

It is just like you coolade drinkers to to try to equate slanderous allegations with stealing music and movies.

Nice FUD.
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Prisoner 201, 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:01pm

Re: Re:
Don't forget the paradox absorbing crumples zones.
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:10pm

Re: Let me try
It isn't like they stole music and we have a clear recored of their IP address to clearly identify them as criminals.

Of course not! They actually STOLE MONEY!! That is already clearly illegal just about everywhere in the civilized world. Now once the court finds them guilty they will get their day in court that they are always blathering on about!!

Nice FUD, jackwagon!
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Prisoner 201, 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:12pm

Re: Let me try
This made me laugh out loud. Thankfully no beverages were involved.

You have some impressive paradox crumple zones. You don't see the parallell when you are saying "These are simply allegations [...] until proven in a court" and the so called "graduated response" based on accusations NOT proven in a court.

I'm still giggling. I owe you one.

And even if in a hypothetical world IP addresses did "clearly identify" a person, shouldn't that be treated like any other evidence? That is, be used as part of a case in court?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:14pm

I'm sure the RIAA is out looking for a new massive pirating ring to bring to justice in order to bury this sort of bad news. It's just unfortunate that it will likely be Mike's grandma that is the ring leader.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:23pm

Re: Quotes!
Dear coward:

If you're going to quote something, please at a minimum attempt to quote it correctly.

The line is "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

Thanx,
teh interwebz
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Marcus Carab (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:27pm

Re: Let me try
...your sarcasm was not lost on everyone, Atkray :)
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:55pm

Breaking the law is legal, protesting the law is illegal.

Next time, Mike, instead of protesting the law, simply break it instead. You'll get in a whole lot less trouble and you won't have false accusations thrown at you.
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freak (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 3:57pm

Re: Let me try
Excellent attempt!

I looked at the subject, giggled, and then looked at the responses, and LOLed.

I give you an A+ for effort, an A+ for execution, and bonus marks for callbacks to common arguments from Mike.
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 4:03pm

Re: Re: Let me try
Yep - caught me off guard for sure. My sarc meter must need adjusting! Oh who cares it's late on a Friday, libations for everyone! \_/...\_/...\_/...|_|...|_|...|_|...
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 4:07pm

I find it amusing, by the way, that our regular commenters, who (falsely) call me a criminal, haven't had anything to say about these music industry folks and their scams.

I've never called you a criminal. A coddler of criminals, yes. An apologist for piracy, yes. But in this particular case I believe that if these people violated the law, they should pay the price. Just like anyone else who takes something of value that they are not entitled to.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 4:18pm

Re: Re: Re: Let me try
Ah well, it can happen to anyone. Not long ago I think I went three rounds with someone who was pulling my chain, and didn't even realize until Mike pointed it out a day or two later :)
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 4:51pm

Re:
"Embezzling money is a minor hiccup eh?"

There are two sets of laws, those that protect the rich and those that protect everyone else. Those that protect the rich carry steeper penalties.
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Vukovar (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 4:55pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Let me try
Wow. What a weird world of absolutism you live in.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:07pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Let me try
Er... I'm not sure I understand what you mean...
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Prisoner 201, 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:23pm

Re: Re: Re: Let me try
WTB: Sarcasmometer tuned to within 40 microironies.

Totally blindsided. Well played Atkray.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:41pm

Re:
And what price should they pay? If a woman who downloaded $30 worth of songs has to pay $1.92 million, what do embezzlers who steal hundreds of thousands of dollars pay?
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vukovar (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:45pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Let me try
My fault - directed at the AC comment "I've never called you a criminal...." Shouln't post and eat at the same time.
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vukovar (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:49pm

Re: Re:
Lawyers.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 5:50pm

Well, in addition to a felony conviction, restitution, fines and job loss; I'd gather that rich, soft, former execs fare particularly poorly in a prison environment.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 8 Jul 2011 @ 6:40pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Let me try
ah - heh, that makes more sense :)
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 7:37pm

Re:
A coddler of criminals? How about a promoter of simple reality. I make a living off of digital goods which used to be exclusively tied to little plastic disks which cost money, my business has it's own share of issues but it is "moving" with the times and changing where it makes it's income. Business's which don't adapt, die, fact of life.

"criminal", "piracy", how do you define this? As has been repeated over and over, there is nothing but data replication on the internet. No one has lost anything except the "old guard" which made money off every replication because it was a physical item. If you remove the old guard and assume all free, artists still make the same or probably MORE than they did before. I feel absolutely no pitty for the recording industry, they need to go, the "MUSIC" industry (and most notably the artists who are actually making money instead of being in permanent debt) is doing just fine or even better than ever before.

The movie industry is slightly different, don't know where free fits into their model but I think it probably involves making folks "WANT" to pay to see things. 3D is a start, unfortunately with the exception of Avatar and Transformers 3, it has been a complete waste of effort and actually ruined the new medium by pushing crap at audiences. On the other hand, how about making going to the theaters a nice night out again instead of the current hit and miss uncomfortable and potentially annoying (kids, cell phones, etc) experience.

Mike doesn't coddle pirates or criminals, just points out the reasons no one wants to do the things we used to do because: one- we don't have to, two- everything is corporatized and "maximized for profit" which basically means against the comfort and enjoyment of the consumers.

Things change, but that's what you argue against, so no reason explaining common sense to a hack yet again.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2011 @ 7:56pm

@AC

So you don't see a problem with a website that takes the work of another to which it is unentitled and distributes for its own personal gain? Interesting moral perspective but also against the law (making it criminal). Masnick constantly raises specious free speech and due process smokescreens to make excuses for this sort of behavior. I have no idea why you feel entitled to get something for nothing or profit from the work of another. If you feel the price is too high, don't buy it. It's entertainment for Christ's sake.
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Nicedoggy, 8 Jul 2011 @ 11:22pm

The nice thing about all this "war on piracy" crap is that it will bring greater accountability to an industry that had none before.

Will it ever happen on the U.S.?

How can music and movies sell billions and still make no profit?
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The eejit (profile), 9 Jul 2011 @ 12:40am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Let me try
It'll cost you $100, and you'll get 14,000 free gold in the MMO of your choice. You just need to put your e-mail and password here...
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The eejit (profile), 9 Jul 2011 @ 12:41am

Re:
The bigger the cushion...
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PaulT (profile), 9 Jul 2011 @ 12:55am

Re:
"on the one hand we have people in the "entertainment" businesses on the other hand we have pirates."

False dichotomies are a very bad debating technique and obvious ones like this make you look like an idiot. Just saying.

"Major labels, licensing organisations etc are what bring in money so why focus on minor hiccups with them"

Yeah, erosion of free speech, the hijack of Western culture, removal of due process and the assumption of guilt before innocence is fine as long a handful of corporations make some money.

"Any idiot can grasp that point so they do."

Then maybe you should start looking at the real reasons why rather than the half-assed assumptions the above are based on.
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justsyin, 9 Jul 2011 @ 5:05am

Re:
Please, do recalibrate your sarcasm detector :-)
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abc gum, 9 Jul 2011 @ 8:36am

Re:
4) ?????
5) profit
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abc gum, 9 Jul 2011 @ 8:47am

AC vs AC

MAD mag - awesome comic
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The eejit (profile), 9 Jul 2011 @ 1:31pm

Re:
You mean like the IFPI?
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Pixelation, 10 Jul 2011 @ 8:33am

Re: Re: Re:
Politicians.
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Jay (profile), 10 Jul 2011 @ 10:55am

Re:
The best accountability?

If the government would get out of the way of the economy.

This is why copyright enforcement is the wrong path.
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AJBarnes, 11 Jul 2011 @ 4:56am

Stop Tax Piracy NOW
We need an organization for those who are Tax Pirates. Getting free gubment goods and services without paying for them makes this guy (and many of our represenatives and senators) PIRATES. How much revenue do we lose to the Tax Pirates? It's time to get the gubment to take over the tax system and stop this piracy NOW.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2011 @ 1:39pm

Re: Re:
Their lawyers....

BadaBing..BadaBoom....

Thank you, Thank you, I'll be here all week....
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2011 @ 1:42pm

Re: Re: Re:
Drat... beaten to the punch by Vukovar

I'm sure I thought of it first, and since this isn't a first to tell society, I'll be expecting appropriate licensing fees for that one (or an honorable mention at the appropriate comedy roast).
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