Pirating Music
The piracy of digital music has had a major effect on the music industry. The RIAA (Recording Arts industry of America) says the term piracy is “benign” and that it does not proper describe the effect music theft has on all of the people working behind the scene to help create and produce that music. These key people that get wronged by piracy include audio engineers, producers, publishers, audio engineers, recording artists, songwriters, etc.
The RIAA reminds us even though illegally downloading one song does not feel wrong or seem like it would have much of an impact; however, the millions of people illegally downloading, without the appropriate people getting their cut, is absolutely devastating to the industry.
Many bands right now are giving free streaming through their websites, Soundcloud, Internet radio and other forms of music networking. Although piracy is becoming less and less of a problem, it still continues to have an impact on the industry.
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Sampling
Sampling may seem like a fun and unique art form. However, this bends that line between creative licensing and copyright laws and could become problematic. Part of the problem with Sampling is that sometimes the artist that is sampled does not see any kind of royalties, for example: Kanye West & Justice. When sampling becomes a copyright issue, the common defense is that the sample was not used substantially and is unrecognizable to the standard consumer.
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Copyright Infringement
On January 15, 1971, George Harrison released “My Sweet Lord”. It was in the number one stop for five weeks and again in 2002 for one week. Unfortunately, things began to go sour when the song “He’s so Fine” by the Chiffons (1962) was moved to the Bright Tunes Music Corporation in ‘71. On February 10, 1971, Bright Tunes decided to sue George Harrison. They managed to reach of settlement of $148,000 but it never reached execution. The case continued. The attorneys of Bright Tunes wanted 75% of royalties and the copyrights to “My Sweet Lord”. The judge did not believe that Harrison purposefully plagiarized the song (they were essentially the same with minor differences). He was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” and he had to pay $587,000, which was paid in 1981.
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