In a much watched lawsuit, the Allman Brothers, Cheap Trick and the Youngbloods reached a settlement with the Sony record label for back payment of digital download royalties. The lawsuit has been in the forefront of the dispute between record labels and recording artists over the treatment of digital download income in respect to contracts signed back before the advent of iTunes and mp3 files.
This case was certified as a class action, so potentially the settlement terms could impact recording artists that had deals with Sony (or a predecessor) between 1976 and 2001.
Sony is not alone in facing litigation from artists that signed deals prior 2003 for the license vs sale issue. The “Eminem Case” of F.B.T. Productions, LLC v. Aftermath Records was the pioneer case in which the Ninth Circuit held a digital download should be treated as a license, entitling an artist to a 50% royalty.
Click here for a running list of lawsuits over the sale vs license issue for digital downloads.
March 15th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
I think most of the lawsuits in these situations will end up settling because the fight against paying the artists would be more expensive than paying them. Also the courts might find because of the fast pace technology has moved at, the artists would be inclined to the money because there would have been no way to realize what the industry became. There is also a precedence issue, because of the consolidation the music industry has gone through, there are many other companies that will be open to that type of litigation.