Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (1275)	9/14/2000 1:19:08 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

RNWK--Courtney Love demands some MP3.com cash September 14, 2000 09:07 AM PT by Ryan Tate In the nine months since it filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against MP3.com (MPPP), Universal Music Group has said over and over again that it is battling the online music portal to protect the financial interests of its legendary stable of performers. After it said as much in court papers, a federal judge ordered MP3.com to pay Universal between $120 million and $250 million in damages on Sept. 6. But Universal recording artists will never see a dime of that cash, one of the label's most prominent musicians, Courtney Love, now says. And so, the Grammy-award-winning singer says she will turn the tables on Universal and ask a court to fine the company for stealing her music. Long an outspoken critic of the record industry and its Internet strategy, Love made her statements Saturday in "Pho," an email discussion list focused on online music. (Brooke Barnett, Love's high-profile webmaster, confirmed that the message in question was, indeed, sent by Love.) Universal was very clear It's understandable that Love would expect that Universal would share its multimillion-dollar windfall with its musicians. Universal executives said in court papers, on Web pages and in one well-publicized speech that they were battling MP3.com at least partly to protect Universal's performers, a group that includes everyone from rap star Eminem to soul crooner Barry White to Love's own grunge-rock band, Hole. Universal's most vigorous defense of its artists came in May, when Edward Bronfman Jr., the CEO of Universal parent Seagram (VO), spoke at a conference sponsored by RealNetworks (RNWK). "We will fight for our rights and those of our artists, whose work, whose creations, whose property are being stolen and exploited," Bronfman said, according to Seagram's website. Speaking again of the artists and the MP3.com suit, Bronfman added, "Had those donors [the artists] been compelled to do what they have done [post their music on the Internet for free], it would be a tale not of generosity but of coercion, not of liberality but of servitude. "Those whose intellectual property is simply appropriated on the Internet or anywhere else, are forced to labor without choice or recompense, for the benefit of whoever might wish to take a piece of their hide." Universal also trumpeted the financial interests of artists in legal papers. Trying to convince a judge to issue a summary judgment against MP3.com, its lawyers wrote in February that, "Recording artists are compensated for their creative efforts and monetary investments largely from the sale of phonorecords to the public and from license fees received for the reproduction, distribution, digital performance, or other exploitation of the sound recordings on such phonorecords ... The My.MP3.com service is built on ... unauthorized reproductions." Universal was represented in the MP3.com case not only by its lawyers but also by the Recording Industry Association of America, an industry group. The association defended the lawsuit in a "Q&A" section of its website, saying the litigation would further the interests of musicians. "The majority of artists, musicians, and other members of creative professions want to be compensated for their efforts -- and like anyone else who invests hard work and creativity, they have the fundamental right to decide which innovative business models they want to pursue and which they do not," the page stated. "The problem is that MP3.com didn't even ask."