Friday, January 20, 2012
The Legal Fight Over Karaoke is Getting Loud
Hollywood Reporter: Two weeks ago, KTS Karaoke, a CD and DVD manufacturing giant was fed up by the suggestion that it might owe $1.28 billion for 6,715 acts of alleged song infringement. The company decided to drag Sony/ATV Music Publishing into a California federal court for being an aggressive nuisance in the karaoke marketplace.
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2 comments:
What this really boils down to is money. It seems as though any opportunity the music industry finds to acquire a large sum of money, and quick, is readily taken. I am not saying this is senseless - the industry itself runs on multiple large corporations which make up the majority of record contracts and rights ownership agreements. In turn, of course the primary goal is to increase revenue. However, the war on infringement and piracy has become a bit ridiculous. This particular scenario is a prime example of an organization going out on a limb to attempt to prove a violation of the law. Karaoke is something fun people do at bars and birthday parties. Their royalties may be a bit of a gray area, but 1.28 billion is a bit of a steep price to pay. The message isn't entirely wrong, but would it kill this industry to leave a little joy for the rest of us?
This seems kind of petty. While I do understand that the people who originally wrote and produced the tracks that are being used for karaoke deserve royalties for their contributions, it seems like the amount of fees involved in legally using a track for karaoke purposes is ridiculous. If the fees weren't so high and complex, maybe the karaoke creators would actually create their tracks in a more law-abiding manner. As Kassondra mentioned, their is currently a lot of buzz about copyright infringement and anti-piracy. I wonder if it would be such a big issue if things just cost less. I would hope that people would be less likely to illegally download movies if movies didn't cost so much in the first place. I mean, to see a movie with my family of five, it costs at least $50 for the tickets alone. I don't quite see how that's justified. Anyways, this is just one more case of the current slew of copyright legislation that is all rooted in the quest for more financial success. It makes sense to want to be compensated, but I wonder when the companies will ever think they have enough...
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