Dr. Dre (Andre Young) has a filed a lawsuit against his former label Death Row Records over copyright ownership to the album “The Chronic.” In 1996, Dr. Dre agreed to give up 50% ownership of the rights to the album in exchange for continued royalties. However, Death Row never paid up and now Dre wants his music back!
Timeline of events via Pitchfork
Specific details about this case via Billboard
DRM, or digital rights management, is a technology being used by publishers and other copyright holders to limit the piracy of digital media and devices. Most record labels insist that online music retailers employ DRM to prevent rampant copying and piracy.
However, Wal-Mart has recently began selling songs without DRM on their website for $0.94 per song, or $9.44 an album.
Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart’s senior director for digital media, said… “Our new ‘DRM-free’ MP3 digital tracks give (customers) the ease and flexibility to play music on virtually any device at a great value.”
Creative Commons, DJ Vadim and BBE have released all original solo, individual instrumental and a cappella tracks for DJ Vadim’s “Soundcatcher” album under an Attribution NonCommercial license.
This is cool because remixers and producers can freely sample these audio sources to create their own (non-commercial) works.
If you are a producer, go download the audio sources from ccMixter. Then, I would encourage you to create an account at ccMixter, and upload your new tracks so others can check them out.
Download DJ Vadim’s audio sources.
On Sunday, AT&T offered a live feed of Lollapalooza to fans using their Blue Room entertainment webcast… on a slight delay. Pearl Jam Headlined the concert, and during their performance a content monitor working for AT&T censored two lines of lyrics that criticized President Bush.
Eddie Vedder improvised the following lyrics while singing Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” and was censored… “George Bush leave this world alone” and “George Bush find yourself another home.”
Needless to say it sounds like the Pearl Jam camp is pissed.
Watch the video clip… edited and unedited part.
Bars featuring cover bands watch your back…
Nightclubs, bars, restaurants and other establishments featuring live artists that perform cover songs written by famous musicians are being targeted by music copyright companies in an effort collect royalty fees.
A $210,000 copyright infringement lawsuit was recently filed by a group of 13 licensing companies against the owner of the SaltyDawg II, an East Side Tuscan bar. Details related to the specific infringement in this case are not available, but possibilities include live musicians, karaoke, and the jukebox.
There’s more… according to a press release from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), this lawsuit is one of 26 recently filed against bars, restaurants and nightclubs in 17 states.
Unbelievable.
Read more about this case on the Tuscan Citizen website.
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