Posts Tagged ‘music and musicians’

“‘Hannah Montana’ fan club sued over tickets”

Class action lawyers say the club led fans to buy memberships on the assumption that they’d get an inside track to tickets for performances by the teen phenomenon. Instead, the concerts have proved to be the year’s hottest ticket and fans have been left to buy from scalpers or go without. “The Web site does not guarantee ticket availability, but represents that members who log on shortly after tickets become available will have a good opportunity to get them, according to the lawsuit.” (AP/CNN, Nov. 13). More: Lattman.

Guitar tablature? Keep looking

Amateur players seeking the chords for commonly played songs are out of luck these days, since the music publishers had a fit of intellectual-property-itis and sent takedown letters to a compilation site. That’s just one of the entries in a compilation by mashable.com, “Death by Lawyer: Ten Cool Sites We Miss“, which also answers the question of why the wonderful Pandora internet radio service is available only to U.S.-based computers (via Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason “Hit and Run”).

Sellers of used CDs

New burdens are being heaped on them by state legislators who appear intent on protecting the interests of the original music providers:

In Florida, the new legislation requires all stores buying second-hand merchandise for resale to apply for a permit and file security in the form of a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In addition, stores would be required to thumb-print customers selling used CDs, and acquire a copy of state-issued identity documents such as a driver’s license. Furthermore, stores could issue only store credit — not cash — in exchange for traded CDs, and would be required to hold discs for 30 days before reselling them.

(Ed Christman, “New laws create second-hand woes for CD retailers”, Reuters/Billboard, May 4; Ars Technica, May 7). According to HardOCP, used game CDs are affected by the rules as well. (May 8).

Microsoft told to pay $1.5 billion over music patents

“A federal jury in San Diego [Thursday] ordered Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent for violating two patents for a technology used by hundreds of companies that allows users to play digital music on computers, cellphones and other portable devices.” (Alan Sipress, “Microsoft Loses Big In MP3 Patent Suit”, Washington Post, Feb. 23). Washington Post tech blogger Rob Pegoraro (Feb. 23):

Alcatel-Lucent’s patent payday has all the things that patent-abuse critics hate:

* “Submarine” patents, invoked years after a contested invention has hit the market? Check
* Claiming ownership of a media format most people use all the time? Check
* A plaintiff that’s failed to commercialize its own alleged invention? Check
* Extortionate royalty demands? Check

(via Kevin Drum, Feb. 23).

N.Y. solon: let’s ban phones, audio in crosswalks

“A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City and Buffalo.” (“Ban Proposed On Cell Phones, iPods In Crosswalk”, WNBC, Feb. 7). Comment: TechDirt, Global Nerdy, Bainbridge, Wired blog. A Blog for All rounds up links. Commenter Mike Knowland at Dvorak.org writes, “It won’t be enforced, but when someone gets hit by a car while breaking this law, the driver won’t be 100% at fault anymore.”

Rapper asks $900 million for Canadian border hassles

Jerome Almon, who owns the Detroit rap music label Murdercap, has sued Canadian officials demanding $900,000,000 over alleged hassles in his attempts to cross the border. Almon, whose musical oeuvre includes works entitled On Ya Neez Bitch and How Stella Got My Backhand, says that although his police record contains arrests only and not convictions, Canadian border control personnel have delayed his entry to the country on dozens of occasions, sometimes for hours. He is representing himself in the suit. (“Detroit rapper sues over alleged Canadian border hassles”, CBC, Jan. 17; Paul Egan, “Detroit record label head alleges harassment against border officials”, Detroit News, Jan. 18; P2Pnet).

“Jay-Z versus the Sample Troll”

“Similar to its cousins the patent trolls, [Bridgeport Music Inc.] and companies like it hold portfolios of old rights (sometimes accumulated in dubious fashion) and use lawsuits to extort money from successful music artists for routine sampling, no matter how minimal or unnoticeable. … Since 2001, Bridgeport’s shotgun approach has led to many dismissals and settlements, but also two major victories. … there’s only one appellate court, the 6th Circuit, that takes the ridiculous position that any sample, no matter how minimal, needs a license.” (Tim Wu (Columbia lawprof), Slate, Nov. 16). Frank Pasquale at Concurring Opinions has some further thoughts: Nov. 21. More on sampling litigation in Ted’s “Overlawyered iMix” post, Aug. 9, 2005, and comments.

Why there aren’t DVDs of some of your favorite old TV series

The reason, Mark Evanier notes on his blog, we don’t see DVDs of shows like “SCTV” and “WKRP in Cincinnati” is the difficulty and expense of rights clearances for music used during the show, even if it’s just a character humming. More on the difficulty and problem of rights clearances: Oct. 17, 2005 and links therein.

Warner Home Video better hope that a class action attorney with time on his hands doesn’t read the post’s last sentence about a DVD advertised as uncensored that isn’t uncensored; maybe it can be averaged out with the suit over Wal-Mart’s CDs.

Update: A commenter raises an important point:

Read On…

Weird Al Yankovic, “I’ll Sue Ya”

The entertainer’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” album includes a song by that title, the first two stanzas of which are:

I sued Taco Bell…’cause I ate half a million chalupas,
and I got fat!
I sued Panasonic…they never said I shouldn’t use their microwave
to dry off my cat!

Fuller lyrics are here, and a sound sample can be found here.