[A2k] Sony: Music EULAs? Naah. You Bought It; It's Yours

[Seth Johnson]

> http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/28/sony_screwing_artist.html

> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060428/ap_en_mu/music_downloads_royalties;_ylt=AowpM.my63biaeu.FU8A_rRxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

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> http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/28/sony_screwing_artist.html


Sony screwing artists out of iTunes royalties, customers out of
first-sale

Friday, April 28, 2006


Sony musicians including Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers are
suing the record label for screwing them out of their royalties
on sales of music on iTunes and other digital music services.

At issue is whether the music sold through these services is a
"license" or a "sale." Sony pays less to its artists for sales
than for licensing (Sony artists reportedly earn $0.045 for each
$0.99 song sold on iTunes). Naturally, Sony claims that the songs
sold on iTunes are sales and not licensing deals.

This is where it gets interesting. As Brad Templeton and others
have pointed out, Sony and others have long maintained that what
you get when you buy an iTune is a license, not ownership of a
product. That license prohibits you from doing all kinds of
otherwise lawful things, like selling your music to a used-record
store, loaning it to a friend, or playing it on someone else's
program.

But if Sony says that it's selling products (and therefore only
liable for 4.5 cents in royalties to its artists) and not
licenses, then how can it bind us, its customers, to licensing
terms?

    According to the suit, the record company is treating digital
downloads like traditional record sales, rather than licensed
music, triggering a different royalty deal.

    Under that old rubrik, the record company deducts fees for
the kind of extra costs they used to incur when records were
pressed on vinyl, including packaging charges, restocking costs
and losses due to breakage.

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> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060428/ap_en_mu/music_downloads_royalties;_ylt=AowpM.my63biaeu.FU8A_rRxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--


Cheap Trick, Allman Brothers Sue Sony

By DAVID B. CARUSO

Fri Apr 28, 2:31 PM ET


NEW YORK - Rock bands Cheap Trick and The Allman Brothers Band
are suing Sony Music, claiming they are being shortchanged on
royalties for songs downloaded legally over the Internet.

The suit, filed at a federal court in Manhattan, claims Sony has
failed to live up to a contract requiring that it pay its
musicians half of the net revenue it receives from licensing
songs to download services like iTunes and Napster.

Sony has been paying the aging rockers less than that amount, in
part because their record deals predate the existence of legal
music sales over the Internet.

According to the suit, the record company is treating digital
downloads like traditional record sales, rather than licensed
music, triggering a different royalty deal.

Under that old rubrik, the record company deducts fees for the
kind of extra costs they used to incur when records were pressed
on vinyl, including packaging charges, restocking costs and
losses due to breakage.

Tracks sold over the Internet usually go for about 99 cents.
About 70 cents of the sale price goes to Sony. The bands are
getting about 4 1/2 cents per song, according to the suit, rather
than the approximately 30 cents they claim is rightfully theirs.

"I feel strongly that the record company is doing the wrong
thing," said Brian Caplan, an attorney for the bands.

A spokesman for Sony BMG did not immediately respond to inquiries
about the lawsuit.

The bands are seeking to have the suit declared a class action,
which would cover all Sony artists who signed deals between 1962
and 2002. The Allman Brothers Band signed its current Sony deal
in 1989. Cheap Trick's deal dates to 1976.

While the amount of money at stake per song is small, it could
add up to millions of dollars for Sony if a court rules for the
bands.

Caplan estimated that there may be 2,500 recording artists
covered by the class.

Sony Music is part of Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp
(NYSE:SNE - news). and Germany's Bertelsmann AG.