Well as the recording industry is suing online music programs like napster, the songwriters thought the same: they are suing the record labels for publishing their songs online
The big record labels have gotten a lot of attention with their complaints that online music services such as Napster steal their songs. But some people, such as Mike Stoller, one half of the legendary songwriting duo that penned "Jailhouse Rock," think the labels can be just as bad. Along with representatives of such musical giants as Rodgers and Hammerstein and Elvis Presley, Mr. Stoller and his partner, Jerry Leiber, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by music publishers against Paris-based Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group. The suit alleges that Universal violated copyright laws by making songs available on one of its Web sites, Farmclub.com1, without obtaining the permission of the songs' publishers. |
Universal is "doing the same thing, in effect, as Napster was doing," Mr. Stoller says. "They're involved in piracy."
How's that for a change Universal is now being sued and is seeking damages of $150,000 for each of the "hundreds" of songs in the Farmclub service. Universal says it has already payed royalties to publishers for the right to make recordings. But does this also goes for the online publishing of songs? We'll see...
Source: ZDNet
