Over the Thanksgiving Holiday something very disturbing took place… Homeland Security along with ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) , the Department of Justice and the National Intellectual Property Rights Co-ordinating Center seized over 80 websites including popular Hip Hop websites RapGodfathers.com, dajaz1.com, Onsmash.com. These Hip Hop sites were accused of copyright violations, which is crazy, because these sites were popular because they mostly worked with artists to promote their work and help establish a buzz. and
Was there anything on those sites in violation of copyright law? The nature of any music site as robust as the ones mentioned you will inevitably find material. It might come in the form of someone posting a song on a message board, or a video clip from a concert with back ground music. It might be a link to a third-party site which was the case with the aforementioned sites where folks could find material. My experience over the years oftentimes its the artists themselves coming to sites asking for their material to be posted while the labels which also own part of the copyright objects.
In most cases if a site wasn’t blowing things up too much, most industry folks didn’t trip. in talking with label heads they note that in most cases if a song or material was being highlighted prematurely or jeopardizing upcoming promotions a letter, email would be sent out or a phone call made asking for the files or links to be removed. Most sites comply without too much fanfare. It’s the way things have been done for years. It’s the symbiotic relationship that has long existed with record labels and media.
It’s important to note this practice of labels asking media outlets to stop playing or highlighting material has been around long before the internet. Working at a major radio station and several large music outlets, the name of the game was for us to get material way ahead of its release date. Sometimes we managed to get a hold of a ‘press copy’ of a song given to magazines months in advance. Other times it was someone inside the label ‘leaking us a song’cease and decease playing their material. Many of these stations including ours would post those letters up on the wall and even frame them. It was a source of pride and demonstrated your ability to have impact. which we would play for a couple of days only to get a letter from the record labels lawyers ordering us to Continue reading →
December 5, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: advancement, allhiphop, editorial, fail, money, news, not funny, recognize, truth, web;hiphop, world, wtf? . Author: dreydnero . Comments: Leave a comment