Universal Music lets loose the 'goblins' of war

It's not just online that the Universal Music Group has a problem...

From the BBC [news.bbc.co.uk]

I've been buying vinyl for years, and still do. In particular I buy rare/obscure soul & R&B records from 1960's America.

An intrinsic part of 2nd hand record (or CD) buying and collecting has, well, since people started collecting, been in getting hold of promo/demo copies. These (for those who may not know) being the free copies pressed with the sole purpose of promoting the song to the trade through extensive distribution to radio stations, major stores, music mags, dj's, etc, etc.

Promo tracks are everywhere, worldwide, and people have bought and sold them for years. Music collecting is a huge, huge market.

Indeed, my own interest in this particular story is that my hobby site is devoted to a specific, semi-obscure American record label that existed for a few short years in the 60's. For umpteen years I've been collecting the label's output and in more recent times have built a website devoted to it.

Many of the records I have are promo copies. I've been buying them from specialist mailing lists for years. In the last few years, eBay and a couple of other sites have become the main sources for 2nd hand records/cd's. Whether they are promo's, demo's white label's or just plain standard releases, it doesn't matter. There are tens of 1,000's of them on sale right now. The point is that it's a global business, one that's been going on unabated for years.

Now it seems that Universal Music has a bloody great big bee in it's bonnet. It believes that promo discs belong to them and cannot be bought or sold and has taken an online/offline record dealer - Mr Augusto - to court...

Record companies have long maintained that they continue to own [promo copies] and can ask for them back at any time.
Now, because Mr Augusto's online auctions contained some of these promotional discs, the argument is close to being tested in court.
In legal documents filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, UMG's lawyers allege that "[Mr] Augusto's unauthorised distribution of the UMG promo CDs violated UMG's exclusive right to distribute its copyrighted works".

That's outrageous! Worse than that, it shows a corporation that, although it deals in music, has no idea of how the commodity it makes is perceived and handled in the real world.

And it seems that eBay is leaning towards the corporate view with sellers being asked to remove such items.

As one of the most well-known music shops in the UK put said:

"Back in 1992 or 1993, Sotheby's had on the front of their rare record catalogue a record by the Beatles, Love Me Do," he says. This was a seven-inch single marked 'promotional copy, not for resale' and it went for Ł15,000.
"Now I suggested to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society that they might like to go back to Sotheby's and ask for the money back, because this is still subject to the same rules that modern promotional items are.
"We have sold recently, on eBay, many promotional records for tens of thousands of pounds in total. That doesn't seem to be a problem because they are 30 or 40 years old. Suddenly, if you are trying to sell something which is a promotional item made in the last few years, that seems to incur their wrath.
"Maybe we should sit down and decide where the break-point is when it becomes a collectable, non-promotional item any more."

I don't know. I really do shake my head over this one. It's like UMG really do not have a clue about what happens to music and the distribution channels that exist "below the line", ie, those which they have no direct control of.

There are 1,000's of sites out there; online offerings from "traditional" 2nd hand music shops, and specialist marketplaces like eBay and GEMM. What is UMG thinking, and how the hell can they possibly even think about policing such a thing should it go through the courts and become law?

The world is truly going mad!

Syzygy

Oh, the goblin thing is from a Harry Potter reference made by one of the organisations taking up the fight against this stupidity. They clearly know how to get the attention of the media! It certainly went down well with the BBC, who have always strenuously denied any dumbing down in their news!

[edited by: Syzygy at 8:00 pm (utc) on June 4, 2008]