The U.S. music industry, headquartered in New York, has been sued in Canada, by the estate of jazz legend, Chet Baker, among others, for infringing the copyrights to 300,000 songs, without payment to the writers. And Hollywood wonders why the public has no respect for them. How can you lecture the nation on not stealing, when you are the chief of all thieves. 

Hollywood loves to infringe copyrights, then promise to pay pittance later, after they've made huge profits from breaking the law. Never mind people like me that never would or will grant them permission to use copyrights they greedily eye up and often break the law to get their nasty, despicable hands on, via methods such as hacking or visiting internet sites of indie artists, then illegally copying the musical contents for criminal reuse. Disgraceful! 

Major record labels rip off 300,000 songs for compilation CDs, may owe $60 billion in damages

POSTED AT 6:33 AM December 7, 2009 - Jazz great Chet Baker's estate is suing the major record labels for releasing his music on Canadian CDs without paying compensation (a common practice in Canada, where over 300,000 songs have been released on CD without compensation). The defendants -- Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada -- have admitted that they owe at least CAD$50 million, but Baker's estate is entitled to up to CAD$60 billion.

The claims arise from a longstanding practice of the recording industry in Canada, described in the lawsuit as "exploit now, pay later if at all." It involves the use of works that are often included in compilation CDs (ie. the top dance tracks of 2009) or live recordings. The record labels create, press, distribute and sell the CDs, but do not obtain the necessary copyright licenses...

The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement, potential liability exceeds $60 billion.

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