RIAA Keeps Settlement Money, Artists May Sue

[Jitway]

When EMI, Universal Music and Warner music reached settlement agreements with the likes of Napster, KaZaA and Bolt, they collected hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation - money that was supposed to go to artists whose rights had been allegedly infringed upon when the networks were operating with unlicensed music.

 

Now, according to an article, the managers of some major artists are getting very impatient, as it appears the very people who were supposed to be compensated - the artists - haven’t received anything from the massive settlements. They say the cash - estimated to be as much as $400m - hasn’t filtered through to their clients and understandably they’re getting very impatient.

 

Lawyer John Branca, who has represented the likes of The Rolling Stones and Korn, said: “Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for.”

 

Indicating the levels of impatience with the big labels holding the money he added: “Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don’t get paid soon.”

 

Of course, EMI, Universal and Warner have a different take on the delay, with sources suggesting that it’s down to the difficulties in deciding who gets what money, based on the levels of copyright infringement for each individual group or artist.

 

A recording industry on the back foot having spent most of its time fighting the digital revolution rather than becoming part of it, is clearly trying to hang on to every penny, even when it comes to compensating the artists who they claim they were defending by taking legal action in the first place.

 

Irving Azoff, who manages Christina Aguilera, The Eagles, Van Halen, REO Speedwagon and Seal (amongst others) says it’s hard for artists to get what they deserve from the labels: “They will play hide and seek, but eventually will be forced to pay something,” he said. “The record companies have even tried to credit unrecouped accounts. It’s never easy for an artist to get paid their fair share.”

 

Typically, the labels see it a different way. An EMI spokeperson said that it was “sharing proceeds from the Napster and Kazaa settlements with artists and writers whose work was infringed upon” while Warner’s said the label is “sharing the Napster settlement with its recording artists and songwriters, and at this stage nearly all settlement monies have been disbursed.”

 

The Universal spokesman spoke only of the label’s ‘policy’ of sharing “its portion of various settlements with its artists, regardless of whether their contracts require it” with no mention of whether it had actually done this or not.

 

But typically, when money is involved, things start to get murky. The same sources who suggested the reasons for the delay in making flockts are also suggesting that there might not be much money to even give to the artists.

 

It’s being claimed that after legal bills were subtracted from the hundreds of millions in settlements, there wasn’t much left over to hand out.

 

 

 

Well I can say for a fact that they got 10,000 from me and the artist never got crap of it. I new that they legal *cough cough* fees would go to the lawyers and some big ass corporates pocket. This is just not right but what else would we expect from our wonderful government.

 

 

Source is HERE

[Lucandrake]

Haha, start a fight with the one thing bringing in profit. You dumb asses.

[Robert]

I've been reading about the RIAA over the last couple of days, and it ain't pretty. Basically it is a merging of the legal arm of 4 record companies, whose only purpose is to throw threats and lawsuits around like confetti, in the hope of vacuuming up money. They are a bunch of thugs. Being in America, the government will support any actions they may take even if illegal. Many people just pay up so they don't have to go to court. From what I've read, there are many ways to avoid paying at all.

 

Musicians sue Universal Music for lost royalties

 

Intellectual rights are treated as "Real Property" and should therefore be taxed, I think the record companies would suddenly find business to be much more expensive!

 

How RIAA litigation works is a lengthy read, with lots of lawyer-speak. But, to summarise, if you get a letter, firstly determine if you are in the same state as your ISP. If not, ignore letter, and ignore order to attend court. Second, remove all hard drives and other devices that may contain material of interest to the RIAA, rent a safety deposit box and store your stuff there until the heat is off. Do not admit anything to anyone. Get a lawyer. If you elect to go to court, demand a jury. Make the RIAA produce proof that it was YOU who downloaded stuff on YOUR computer. They won't be able to. They also litigate against many people in one go, which has already been disallowed by judges. Yet they keep doing it. Make sure they get charged with contempt of court.

 

Once you have won, try suing them. They will quickly move to have the suit dismissed. Or they will settle out of court (if you're lucky), so that the details will not be on public record.

 

Remember, at the first instance, their demand for money is blackmail. Don't forget it.

 

Also don't forget, they have sued disabled people, people without computers, children, and dead people. When they discover that the person is dead, they will then try suing the grieving relatives.

[Lucandrake]

Assholes >.>

 

So they're only true purpose is to suk cock and feed on stupid?

[ken_cinder]

Someone should be forcing them to return that money to who they took it from in the first place, even those big three named. Then they should sue them for invasion of privacy, amongst many other things.

They really have no legal leg to stand on in 90% of the cases where they sue anyone, but people will just lie down and take a beating.

 

I'd LOVE to see them come after me, I'd just f**king love it. I'd make a damn mockery of them.

[Jitway]

The plan was never to distribute this cash to the Artists.

The cash is needed to finance this trickle of lawsuits.

Lawyers are expensive and even tho I'm sure a good percentage of them are on retaining,

most of them are doing profit sharing.

 

Like the ones over at

 

https://www.p2plawsuits.com

 

This is not actually the RIAA, this is a little law office that the riaa has hired to try to rip off

students with the fear of being sued. If you pay us using your master card and visa we'll go away.

It's nice to see that he mob had joined the digital age and you no longer have to pay them in cash.

 

The RIAA wants this lawsuit scam to be self financing if they suddenly have to start actually sending

the moneys collected off to the Artists, who they claim to be collecting for, there house of

cards they have built goes collapsing to the ground.

Because then every complaint they try to file cost them real cash and no

longer can be financed from the collections pool.

[Chibi Kami]

Sounds like it's time to go Phoenix Wright on their asses.

 

"OBJECTION! How do you know I didn't simply download those MP3s for demo purposes?"

 

"OBJECTION! How do you explain the vast increase in sales of older albums following the mainstream introduction of MP3s in the late 90s?"

 

"OBJECTION! Your honor, the prosecution has no dick!"