Former Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen at the MusicTech Summit
(Credit: Greg Sandoval)
SAN FRANCISCO--Apparently nobody--not even an artist--gets a pass from the music industry when it comes to copyright laws.
After unwittingly posting an unauthorized music file on his blog, Dave Allen, former bassist for Gang of Four, said he had received a cease-and-desist letter from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the group that represents the music industry worldwide.
"Talk about your irony of ironies," Allen said after participating in a panel discussion at the MusicTech Summit held here on Thursday. "But I understood completely. I was wrong. I removed the music."
Allen, a founding member of the post-punk British band, best known for the hit song I Love a Man in Uniform, said he believed that whomever sent him an unreleased copy of a song from the group Portishead had permission to do so. He said plenty of music acts send him their songs to post on his blog, Pampelmoose.com.
But not long after posting the song on his blog, Allen received a very long but "polite letter" from the IFPI telling him he was in violation of copyright law.
"I sent a message back apologizing," Allen said. "What I learned from this is that I have to double my efforts to find out where files come from."
Allen also said that while he never meant to pirate Portishead's music, he was still alarmed when he received the letter. "I was chilled...they are much bigger than me and could shut me down," he told the crowd.
Years ago, Allen used to say that he thought music should be given away. He has altered his stance since then.
"I don't want to take money away from artists," Allen said. "They deserve to get paid. We need some laws to protect musicians. Some copyright law is useful as long as it's not heavy-handed law. We have to find cool ways to allow fans to take their music where they want, make it available to them and at the same time protect the artist."
The Pirate Bay continues to come under siege.
The latest blow came on Monday when a Danish court ordered one of that country's Internet service providers to block access to the BitTorrent search engine, according to Danish IT magazine Computerworld.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry brought a civil case against Tele2 Denmark after the ISP refused to filter the Web sites its customers visited.
The Pirate Bay, based in Sweden, is one of the world's most popular piracy tools. The company, founded by three Scandinavians, doesn't host any copyright films or music. Instead, visitors use the site to find pirated material available on torrent files.
Hollywood studios have long considered The Pirate Bay an outlaw organization. The site's founders say they operate in accordance with Swedish law.
Last week, a Swedish prosecutor charged four men connected to The Pirate Bay with conspiracy to violate copyright law.
Yahoo China lost another round in a legal battle as a court in Beijing upheld a ruling that the company is infringing on copyright laws by allowing pirated music to be downloaded, according to the industry group suing Yahoo China.
"The ruling against Yahoo China is extremely significant in clarifying copyright rules for Internet music services in China," John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, or IFPI, said in a statement Thursday. "By confirming that Yahoo China's service violates copyright under new Chinese laws, the Beijing court has effectively set the standard for Internet companies throughout the country."
Yahoo owns a 44 percent stake in Yahoo China, and the controlling stake is owned by Chinese Internet company Alibaba.com, which essentially runs the site. Representatives from Alibaba could not be reached Friday for comment on this story.
The International Federation of Phonographic Industries, which represents the music industry, filed the lawsuit in January 2007 on behalf of several recording studios, including Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, and Universal Vivendi.
In the suit, IFPI accused China Yahoo of violating copyrights because it allows links between its search engine and Web sites that have illegally copied songs from artists such as U2 and Destiny's Child.
In April, a lower court in Beijing had ruled that Yahoo China facilitated infringement of copyrights. Yahoo China appealed the decision, arguing that it should not be liable for content found outside its Web site. Now that appeal has been rejected by a higher court in Beijing, according to the IFPI.
Separately, the court also upheld a ruling on a similar case against Internet company Baidu. A lower court in November 2006 had found that Baidu had facilitated copyright infringement. But because this case was filed under older Chinese copyright laws in 2005, the company was not liable for copyright infringement, the IFPI said.
"We are disappointed that the court did not find Baidu liable," Kennedy said in a statement. "But that judgment was about Baidu's actions in the past, under an old law that is no longer in force. Baidu should now prepare to have its actions judged under the new law. We are confident a court would hold Baidu liable as it has Yahoo China."
China is viewed as one of the biggest sources of pirated music and movies, as well as counterfeit goods. And the IFPI, along with other companies and trade organizations, has been taking legal action to stem the flow of this content out of China. Recent reforms in Chinese law have helped, but experts say piracy still runs rampant.
The IFPI said search services from sites such as Yahoo China and Baidu, which connect users to hundreds of thousands of pirated music tracks, are "a huge drain on efforts to develop a legitimate music market in China." The group claims that more than 99 percent of all music downloading in China violates copyright. Despite the large population and potential of the Chinese market, the IFPI said that in 2006, music sales in China only amounted to $76 million, or less than 1 percent of the entire global recorded-music market.
Still, music labels see huge potential in China, and they have been willing to work with Chinese companies to ensure that music can be distributed legally and without violating copyrights.
In April, Sony BMG Music Entertainment struck a deal with content aggregator Global Music International to distribute its music videos, full-track songs and ringtones to mobile subscribers in China. The deal calls for Global Music to distribute Sony content through wireless-phone operator China Unicom.
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