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Pink Floyd sue EMI over i-Tunes
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TOPIC: Pink Floyd sue EMI over i-Tunes
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Pink Floyd sue EMI over i-Tunes 15 Years, 3 Months ago
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Pink Floyd are suing their record label EMI, claiming that it has no right to sell their songs except as part of full albums. According to a 1999 contract, tunes like Money and Another Brick in the Wall cannot be "unbundled" from the albums on which they appear; EMI alleges this does not apply to downloads.
"Pink Floyd [are] well-known for performing seamless pieces," said Robert Howe, the band's lawyer, at a High Court hearing yesterday. "Many of the songs blend into each other." To reflect this, Pink Floyd's renegotiated 1999 contract "expressly prohibits" EMI from selling songs out of context. And yet, Howe argues, EMI "[permit] individual tracks to be downloaded online and ... [therefore allow] albums not to be sold in their original configuration."
EMI's legal team dismissed this interpretation, saying the album stipulation applies only to physical releases like CDs and DVDs. "In 1999, when [the contract] was negotiated, iTunes didn't even exist," EMI lawyer Elizabeth Jones told BusinessWeek.
"[In 1999] both parties were faced with a whole new world of potential exploitation," Howe admitted. "It was unclear whether record companies would be selling direct to the consumer or through retailers." All the same, he said, "[it] makes no commercial sense ... [to say the contract] doesn't apply online".
Pink Floyd have been signed to EMI since 1967, issuing all of their albums through the label. It's been a lucrative career: The Dark Side of the Moon, released in 1973, is one of the all-time bestselling albums, and the group's back catalogue is second only to the Beatles in worldwide sales.
The band last played together at London's Live 8 concert in 2005. Original singer Syd Barrett died in 2006, and keyboard player Richard Wright in 2008. None of the surviving members of Pink Floyd attended yesterday's hearing.
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/mar/10/pink-floyd-sue-emi
I suppose the 1970s/80s 'concept' albums were always going to be the ones that would prompt the loudest howls over downloaded dismemberment, but surely this isn't a complaint that can go anywhere?
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