Fun Facts about the Big Record Labels

Digital Rights Management (DRM) can not work.

Encryption only works when the attacker is a third party, not the sender nor the receiver. With music, receiver and attacker are the same. If they can hear it, they can record it. How much more time is needed, before the record companies finally get it ? Link

Sony sells CDs that you can not play on your computer. (May 2002)

The protection can be removed with a 99-Cent Marker Pen. How much money did they spend on their Key2Audio research ? Guess who pays for that. Link

Record labels got a $143 million fine for price fixing. (October 2002)

The world's five largest record labels (Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp., Bertelsmann AG, AOL Time Warner and EMI Group Plc.) and the US' three biggest music retailers were found guilty of a conspiracy to inflate the minimum price of CDs between 1995 and 2000. Everyone who did the necessary paperwork could get a $20 compensation. The remaining sum was to be payed by donating CDs to charities, libraries and schools. An easy way to get rid of their stock of unsold and unsellable discs. Link

Sony's copy protection defeated by holding down the shift key. (October 2003)

If you hold down the shift key on your Windows computer, while inserting one of their CDs with the MediaMax CD3 or the Macrovision CDS-200 Copy-Prevention System, these crippling programs can not run. They seem not to understand, why customers avoid to buy such corrupted CDs. Link, Link

Record labels agreed to pay an extra $50 million in royalties. (May 2004)

The companies "failed to maintain adequate contact" with artists, like David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Gerry Mulligan and thousands others. Link

First record label settles and pays $10 million in payola scandal. (August 2005)

Sony BMG Entertainment agreed to stop making payments and providing expensive gifts to radio stations and their employees in return for airplay. The fine was used for music education programs in New York. The internal memo's are hilarious and shocking. This investigation should be extended to other states and countries.
Link, Settlement (pdf), Internal memo's (pdf).
The three other remaining big labels - Universal Music Group (France), the EMI Group (UK) and the Warner Music Group (USA) - have been subpoenaed too.

Record labels do not want their artists in podcasts. (August 2005)

You might think that they would be very happy for not having to pay for promotion by radio stations that reach the whole world. Wrong, only independent artists deserve such exposure. Excellent news! Link, Link

Sony tries protection once more, and compromises your computer. (November 2005)

It installs a spyware "rootkit" on your computer and uses tactics typically employed by virus writers, to hide its components and resist their removal. Sony declared to "temporarily halt" the use of its controversial anti-piracy software in all of its music CDs. They seemed to have no answer to what should be done with the two million CDs already sold or in the stores for two weeks. They finally decided to replace the CDs infected with this trojan horse. Link, Link, Link, Link, Link

Warner settles to pay $5 million in payola scandal. (November 2005)

Warner Music Group Corp., the third largest record company in the US, has agreed to abandon the industry-wide practice of providing radio stations and their employees with financial incentives and promotional items in exchange for airplay. Good, only two more companies to go. Link

Song lyrics sites face legal crackdown. (December 2005)

Thanks to the Music Publishers' Association, sites where you can enter some text lyrics, to find out what song was playing on the radio, have been threatened and forced to shut down. An excellent method to prevent you from buying something you just heard. Link, and Link. Or maybe not ? Link

Beatles sue EMI. (December 2005)

They claim more than $53 million in unpaid royalties. Link

Universal Music Group get a fine of $12 million in payola scandal. (May 2006)

This is the largest fine so far. Memos supplied as evidence illustrate how Universal (which includes Island/Def Jam, Motown, Interscope and other labels) tried to force bad music down our throats. Nice, only one more company to go. Link

EMI settles payola scandal by paying $3.75 million. (June 2006)

The last major record label pays according to its market share. Link

There is more info about the music industry at downhillbattle.org.
You can find a list of DRM free online shops on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) page.

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