None of the estimated $400 million that the RIAA received in settlements with Napster, KaZaA, and Bolt over allegations of copyright infringement has gone to the artists whose copyrights were allegedly infringed. Now the artists are considering suing the RIAA.
Lawyers who have represented artists such as The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, and Christina Aguilera say artists and managers are upset that they haven’t seen any of the settlement money the RIAA received after suing the popular file-sharing services. According to the New York Post, the artists are “girding for battle with their music overlords,” who respond that they have “started the process” of figuring out how to share the money, most of which was received seven years ago in a settlement with Napster. The RIAA also claims that there isn’t actually that much money available after subtracting legal fees. Whoops.
“INFRINGEMENT!” [New York Post]
“RIAA Keeps Settlement Money, Artists May Sue” [TorrentFreak](Thanks to Smitherd and Jim!)
(Photo: D.S.B.)
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I’m not surprised by this. I vote that if a company has won the award “Worst Company in America”, then they are forced to keep said title until something extremely redeeming is done, which we know won’t happen.
The RIAA should be allowed to keep the title until they fold, they deserve it and they try very hard to keep it! The evidence exists they like being known as that, I mean look at what they did for us to have this place to comment in
Anyway, such a shame, poor artists. They have been getting screwed for years and somehow expected things to change when an enemy, by the name of “consumers” (aka pirates), appeared. I guess they thought with a common enemy, the RIAA would be more sympathetic instead of apathetic as always.
@morsteen: No offense, but that’s the typical siren cry of the failed artist.
1. Nobody says you have to give it away. There’s plenty of legal download sites you can do business with from iTunes and Amazon, to eMusic and WE7. According to a recent post on his blog, Trent Reznor paid just $38 to get his latest releases on Amazon through Tunecore. Can you honestly not try and make some cash back on that?
2. I’m always impressed when artists complain on these kind of forum posts, yet never mention who they are. Who are you? Is Morsteen your recording name? Are you available for download anywhere? Do you have a website or MySpace profile where anyone reading about your plight can listen to and perhaps purchase your music?
If the answer to these is no, your problem is marketing, not piracy. You failed to promote yourself in any meaningful way on an international public forum (even mentioning your recording name could get interested parties looking at your music), so if you’re failing to make a profit with music you need to learn how to market yourself.
3. Who says you have to go on a “big ass tour”? Surely there’s bars, coffee houses and clubs you could play at within a few hours drive of where you live? Build up some grassroots support and you might be able to make a living. Not get rich – make a living.
Oh, almost forgot – the URL you have in your profile, where you could promote your music? It’s a dead link.
Laughable.
At this point the more people who loath entirely the RIAA the better.
@Mykro: Yeah, newsflash..
Metallica stopped being a half decent band in 1990.
I haven’t bought a single CD in over ten years. I do cherry pick the songs I want on Itunes, but I can’t support the CD industry and I will never purchase a crummy Sony product of any kind again.
Welcome to the music industry artists, it looks like you’ve got another leech you’re gonna have to burn before you stop it from sucking you dry.