AfterDawn: News

Artists demand double pay for crippled CDs

Music publishers and songwriters have begun demanding double royalty payments for copy protected music CDs, that contain the audio tracks in two formats -- in crippled pseudo Audio-CD format and in compressed digital format. The reasoning behind the demands is quite simple -- since two copies of the song are being sold, the royalty payments should also be made for two copies.

"From a legal standpoint, the position of the music publishers is that these discs contain two separate (copies of each song)," said Cary Ramos, an attorney representing the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA). "The fact that they are the same recording doesn't mean that we should treat it as one."



NMPA is making a valid point, since even by RIAA's standards, an Audio CD and a digital MP3/WMA file are two separate products, even if the consumer owns the Audio CD in question. RIAA argued and pursued this point years ago in, for instance, the My.MP3.com case.

New digital distribution channels could mean greater revenue shares for recording artists, but they will have to make their case early, and make it strong.

Source: News.com

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 14 Jan 2004 18:05

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• 6 comments

• Ghostdog

  Haha!
  
  Maybe this will force the record labels to reconsider copy protection mechanisms. The real troublemakers, the pro-pirates, know how to crack those anyway.

  15.1.2004 08:39 #1

• Nephilim

  It's about time they get nailed in the butt for the crap they're pulling.

  15.1.2004 08:52 #2

• six.6.six

  Laughs as hard as he can, i love to hear news of trouble or pain in the recording industry. They have been screwing there very own customers for years! I hope they all ROTT!!!

  15.1.2004 09:23 #3

• GrayArea

  It's particularly good that the crux of the RIAA's case against My.MP3.com is what the publishers and songwriters are citing to make their case. Let's see the RIAA back peddle out of this one.

  15.1.2004 12:13 #4

• Nephilim

  Gray Area, they'll probably consult Bagdhad Bob for their next press release.

  15.1.2004 12:25 #5

• Litnrod

  hahahaha .. looks like it is finally coming full circle .. *wipes tears from eye* this has just made my day =)

  20.1.2004 05:22 #6