Did Universal Music Declare 50 Cent's Own Website Is A Pirate Site?

from the fact-checking dept

You may have heard last week that hip hop star 50 Cent got into a public war of words with his record label, Interscope (a division of Universal Music Group), concerning his upcoming album. 50 Cent claimed that differences would mean that the album was delayed. At the end of the week, it sounded like he had patched things up a bit and worked out the major differences, but he might want to take another look at what his label is doing.

As you may know, yesterday, we wrote about Universal Music's involvement in putting together a list of "pirate" websites that ad giant GroupM would place on a big blacklist of sites. GroupM would use the blacklist to bar its ads from appearing on any listed site. We noticed many oddities on the list, including a bunch of websites that are considered the top of the top in the hip hop world when it comes to promoting new works. However, some in our comments noted an even odder site on the list: 50 Cent's own website: ThisIs50.com.

Now, there may be some confusion, because it appears that there are two different "official" 50 sites. However, one of them, 50Cent.com is owned and run by Universal Music. ThisIs50.com is 50's own site and is the one linked from his own Facebook page (which, in turn, is linked from his verified Twitter account). There seems to be little doubt that ThisIs50 is 50's own website. In fact, if you look at the Universal-run 50Cent.com, it very prominently links to ThisIs50: Furthermore, Universal Music and Interscope regularly linked to ThisIs50.com. Seems pretty odd to then put it on their list of "pirate" sites. Of course, in a bit of odd recursiveness, ThisIs50 now has a discussion going about the fact that it's on the list. Perhaps this is some sort of "punishment" for 50 Cent's earlier claims that "piracy" is just "marketing" and that he'll make up the money elsewhere?

But, honestly, since supporters of PROTECT IP and other such legislation keep claiming that it's so easy to figure out what is and what is not a "rogue site," can someone explain how Universal recording artist 50 Cent's own site gets on the list, which was apparently put together in part by Universal Music? I have a question in to folks at Universal Music, but once again, I doubt I'll hear back.

Filed Under: 50 cent, piracy, rogue site
Companies: groupm, interscope, universal music, wpp