Legal Controversy in the Industry Today

Several lawsuits have been filed recently against record labels that have allegedly taken millions from artists by mislabeling digital music sales as "sales" instead of "licenses".  Sales carry a much lower royalty rate than licenses, and artists claim to be losing massive amounts of money from this process. A lawsuit filed by Eminem against Aftermath records has brought the most light to this situation, after his legal team provided audits that showed that Aftermath had claimed more than $3 million in royalties that should have gone to Eminem.  The judge ruled that digital music should be considered a license.  This means that millions of artists could stand to gain a significant amount of money from labels that have not been treating digital sales as such.

I personally think that this decision is great for artists, as I have long felt that for the most part artists do not get enough from the sales of their music.  Treating digital sales as a license will mean higher earnings and hopefully a repayment to artists that have lost a significant amount of money from this situation.

http://musiciancoaching.com/music-news-2012/lawsuits-sesac-columbia-records-march-4/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/business/media/28eminem.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Another possible major lawsuit that is being discussed is that of Music industry groups such as the RIAA and the IFPI filing an anti-trust suit against good for not prioritizing its search results to make legal music sites top matches and make piracy sites appear lower in order to make it more cumbersome for users to find piracy sites.  Google has already taken steps to cooperate with anti-piracy efforts by removing over 5 million copyright-infring sites from its results, but apparently the music industry does not feel they are doing enough.  

In this situation, I hope that the industry doesn't file suit. Google has shown that they will work with the industry to fix what they can.  If Google periodically goes through and removes sites that are serious offenders from its results, and continues working with the industry to improve its search results, I see no reason for the industry to even threaten this suit.  I personally feel this makes the music industry look like they are trying to bully everyone.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/music-industry-considers-lawsuit-against-google-over-piracy-search-results/

And now for a topic that I have been following very closely.  Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe's legal saga in the Czech Republic has seen major developments in the last few weeks. His last hearing saw his bail doubled, and he was finally released after 5 weeks of incarceration.  He still faces charges in the death of a fan in 2010, which could land him in prison for up to 10 years if he is convicted.  Evidence in the case suggests that it may have been a security guard at the venue and not Blythe that pushed the fan, and Blythe maintains that he never attacked anyone.  I will continue to follow the developments in this story, but for now I am happy that Blythe is able to return to the U.S. and resume his tour with his band, which had previously been canceled due to his incarceration, but will not commence in October. 

http://www.eonline.com/news/335296/lamb-of-god-singer-randy-blythe-bails-out-of-jail-still-faces-fan-death-charges