- Talent Management Scam Crackdown

“The major record labels are known for their harsh stance on copyright infringements, which in an ironic turn of events is now costing them millions of dollars.

Revealing a double standard when it comes to ‘piracy’, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music now have to pay Canadian artists $45 Million for the illegal use of thousands of tracks on compilation CDs. Over the years the labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks or copyright infringements has grown to 300,000 in Canada alone.”

- Record Labels To Pay $45 Million for Pirating Artists’ Music

“LimeWire, the popular peer-to-peer-file-sharing service that allows people to freely transfer music, TV shows, videos, etc., is looking for court-ordered subpoenas of third parties that deal with the recording industry.

The group is going so far as to compel third-party companies like Amazon.com to hand over internal documents (e.g. contracts, accounting books) that pertain to Amazon’s negotiations with the labels. Third-party internal documents “could illuminate Plaintiffs’ views as to the true value of their works and how Plaintiffs acted toward Amazon and other online digital music providers,” writes LimeWire’s attorney, and LimeWire doesn’t want to only rely on the recording industry’s documents to mount its defense.”

- Paste Magazine