You have to examine the financial incentive for digital download
services to look the other way from copyright infringements.
This is what I know:
My daughter downloaded some of my oldies from iTunes and
charged the cost to her account with them. Do you think I ever
saw one dime from those sales or could find out who actually put
the songs up there? Do you think Apple/iTunes will reveal the
names and addresses of the pirates they wink at? Can you even
imagine the size of the class action they would face if everybody
they've helped rip off came together in litigation?
Apple/iTunes takes 34 cents off the top for a 99 cent download.
As long as the party posting the content onto Itunes checks off a
box saying they will comply with copyright law, Apple is perfectly
content not to look any further. They never ask to be shown any
documentation that their "clients" actually have the right to post
said content with them. They have the most minimalist disclaimer
for their profiteering from the work of pirates. And if you notify
them, they will either ignore you or just take down the songs and
make no effort to ascertain whether your claim has ever been
adjudicated by their "clients."
When I bring product to Discmakers, I have to show a credit card
receipt from the Harry Fox Agency showing I paid 9.1 cents per
song per CD I order burned for every copyright I don't control. If
I pay for 1500 licenses, Discmakers won't burn 1501 CDs and trust
me to pay HFA the difference. I get exactly 1500 copies which are
all I'm authorized to have made, even if they are purely promotional
copies and not for sale. Once they leave Pennsauken, even without
shrinkwrap, who's to say I wouldn't decide later to sell them? --
therefore I must furnish written proof I can order the CDs in the
amount licensed. Apple/iTunes demands no such documentation.
Why should they? Who's going to take them on?
Now if you ask an entertainment lawyer to help you correct this
obvious abuse, they will tell you they have no thought of going after
Apple. They will tell you Apple's army of lawyers will drown them
in motions and paperwork and bankrupt them before you ever get
your day in court. They are probably telling you the truth. In real
life, bet on Goliath.
BMI won't touch it because these are essentially mechanical royalties
at stake, not performance rights licenses. They don't even go after
radio stations that don't log their airplay -- even when you report it.
They'd rather go after some bar in East Podunk that plays music on
the weekends and doesn't pay for the use of their catalogue because
they don't have to expend any real resources to go after them. It's
low-hanging fruit.
Even HFA, which specifically handles collection of the mechanical
royalties due from downloads, never seems to find the resources to
go after this chronic abuse.
so the merry go round full of bull continues~
My fellow composers and publishers:
Wake up!
You have to examine the financial incentive for digital download
services to look the other way from copyright infringements.
This is what I know:
My daughter downloaded some of my oldies from iTunes and
charged the cost to her account with them. Do you think I ever
saw one dime from those sales or could find out who actually put
the songs up there? Do you think Apple/iTunes will reveal the
names and addresses of the pirates they wink at? Can you even
imagine the size of the class action they would face if everybody
they've helped rip off came together in litigation?
Apple/iTunes takes 34 cents off the top for a 99 cent download.
As long as the party posting the content onto Itunes checks off a
box saying they will comply with copyright law, Apple is perfectly
content not to look any further. They never ask to be shown any
documentation that their "clients" actually have the right to post
said content with them. They have the most minimalist disclaimer
for their profiteering from the work of pirates. And if you notify
them, they will either ignore you or just take down the songs and
make no effort to ascertain whether your claim has ever been
adjudicated by their "clients."
When I bring product to Discmakers, I have to show a credit card
receipt from the Harry Fox Agency showing I paid 9.1 cents per
song per CD I order burned for every copyright I don't control. If
I pay for 1500 licenses, Discmakers won't burn 1501 CDs and trust
me to pay HFA the difference. I get exactly 1500 copies which are
all I'm authorized to have made, even if they are purely promotional
copies and not for sale. Once they leave Pennsauken, even without
shrinkwrap, who's to say I wouldn't decide later to sell them? --
therefore I must furnish written proof I can order the CDs in the
amount licensed. Apple/iTunes demands no such documentation.
Why should they? Who's going to take them on?
Now if you ask an entertainment lawyer to help you correct this
obvious abuse, they will tell you they have no thought of going after
Apple. They will tell you Apple's army of lawyers will drown them
in motions and paperwork and bankrupt them before you ever get
your day in court. They are probably telling you the truth. In real
life, bet on Goliath.
BMI won't touch it because these are essentially mechanical royalties
at stake, not performance rights licenses. They don't even go after
radio stations that don't log their airplay -- even when you report it.
They'd rather go after some bar in East Podunk that plays music on
the weekends and doesn't pay for the use of their catalogue because
they don't have to expend any real resources to go after them. It's
low-hanging fruit.
Even HFA, which specifically handles collection of the mechanical
royalties due from downloads, never seems to find the resources to
go after this chronic abuse.
So, folks, you're on you own.