Saturday, January 28, 2012
Bar Fight! Sony Sues Karaoke Distributor For Infringement; Gets Sued Right Back For 'Copyright Misuse'
Techdirt: A great many drinkers have watched helplessly as their BAC became inversely proportionate to their common sense, throwing around cash as thought it were Monopoly money before grabbing the mic to belt out Adele's latest track. Karaoke has been the go-to bar sport for thousands of people who feel the only thing keeping them back from superstardom is sobriety. It's a proven money-maker, but does it make ridiculously large damages-type money?
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3 comments:
More ridiculous legal claims! I believe it is unfair of Sony to want to fine KTS for each violation along the production chain - that just doesn't make sense. I've always thought it was odd how karaoke companies could get away with producing such close replicas to the original songs, but I expect a big company to sue. Hopefully KTS will win the lawsuit on this one, so we can keep enjoying our (possibly) lower quality karaoke songs. I also didn't know about all of those rights that have to be bought for songs and that there is more to it than just permission to replay a song.
I agree with Will that it is completely unfair for Sony to be suing KTS multiple times for the same song. The fact that there are so many different fees and licenses to produce one karaoke track in the first place is ridiculous. It seems like there should be some sort of special license that karaoke companies could obtain for each track that would lump the various fees together and reduce the overall total of those fees to make the legal reproduction of tracks more feasible. KTS probably wouldn't have circumvented the fees if they were reasonable in the first place. Sony is right to go after the money that they deserve and KTS is right to only want to be charged for legal damages once per track. I would hope that this lawsuit and countersuit bring up the issue of the need for the revision of copyright and reproduction laws in the music industry.
I think this is just another ugly incarnation of the music industry's inability to move with the times. They are systematically going after any and all users of their music, trying to plug all of the holes with legal red tape as they hemorrhage money from their inability to change. I find it incredibly dishonest and hollow. I feel like the music industry is starting to become a facsimile of political movements that are currently going on
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