Saturday, January 16, 2010

Antitrust Suit Against Sony Continues

This past Wednesday, the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals held that the suit against Sony for price fixing will not be dismissed. According to the plaintiffs, Sony "restrain[ed] the availability and distribution of Internet Music, fix[ed] and maintain[ed] at artificially high and non-competitive levels the prices at which they sold Internet Music, and impose[d] unreasonably restrictive terms in the purchase and use of Internet Music."
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3 comments:

  1. 教育的目的，不在應該思考什麼，而是教吾人怎樣思考.........................

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  3. Slave For Truth said...
    Thank you for your efforts in searching out the entire story of IP infringement. I would like to add that the corporation Intellectual Infringement initiative has not been properly addressed. Since the very inception of recording and storage of creativity, the people behind the development of this industry have done their very best to cloak their intentions and subterfuge artisans out of royalties owed. Several artists have been sampled in the new digital age without the consent of the artist. One such artist that comes to mind is that of James Brown. Hip hop, Rap and R&B would not be without the infringement and assumption of the godfather of funk/soul. In turn, the corporation indemnified itself by making the artist responsible for it's creations, even though the artist has signed agreement with the corporation for producer's,engineers, and recording studios owned by the the record companies. Making an owner or partner of the record company, ultimately responsible for the release of the music would share the burden of responsibility and would put the owner or partner in position of having to be very thorough before making haste on the need to release the product, just to make profit. Finally, the judicial system in place to adjudicate on these infringement cases, really have no prior knowledge of the record industry, and rely heavily on industry experts. It becomes obvious that self-serving record companies higher musicologists that are in conflict of interest, and should be non-partisan. It seems the industry at large has been playing catch up with itself, in that first the industry was created, run in mafia style, and then policies and procedures were created without the agreement between those who own the corporations and those who supply the product. Historically, artisans were reduced to playing out the same type of business model by intimidation of radio DJ's and retailers, even transport drivers of shipments were intimidated. At some point, a recognition by WIPO or World Intellectual Property Organization and the Library of Congress has to occur to put in place better performance base. The Library of Congress needs to make the record company prove the validity of it's claim to "original body of works" by it's artist and then WIPO needs to be more of a doer than a policy creator. What good are laws without enforcement? WIPO has in my opinion become a host to world wide sandwich eaters coming together at the expense of the tax payer, with no result in the protection of IP from infringement.

My observation of Gary Wade Leak (through first hand account,) is that he is incapable of actually dealing with allegations of Intellectual Property infringement made against the very company he represents. Howard Stringer of SONY has not made it's doors open to hear of it's own wrongful corporate behavior(s) and hides behind the knowledge that there is no pool resource for individual artists to draw from in the event of infringement by the corporation. This makes it incredibly difficult to take the corporation to task, yet the corporation relies so heavily on the individual mass contribution through sales, that it may in turn take the individual to court for allegation of IP infringement.

Thank you for your efforts in covering the events of late, I appreciate what you are doing. It has restored my cause of taking on the corporation through the power of thought.

    

In spirit


    Michael Dean Hajas


    Mdean707@hotmail.com

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