Loading ...
If your name happens to be Eddie Trunk, today is the most exciting day of your life:
Some of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest names have teamed up to sue the owner of a Web site that specializes in streaming rare concert recordings. Wolfgang’s Vault offers thousands of recordings of rare audio and video music performances collected over 30 years by Bill Graham, a famous concert promoter who died in 1991.
On Monday, major rock names including Grateful Dead Productions, Carlos Santana and members of Led Zeppelin and The Doors, sued the current owner, claiming it was illegally offering recordings to stimulate sales of other products.
We can only imagine how the conference call went for this one, but we’re pretty sure Jimmy Page politely snoozed his way through, and that Ray Manzarek kept the Jim Morrison mentions to a reasonable (for him) eleven name-drops per minute.
Led Zeppelin, Doors members sue concert video site [Reuters]
My 2L perspective: If Wolfgang’s Vault didn’t secure sync licenses (or have the bands sign contracts waiving them), then the artists probably have a good case. That means you have to pay the music publisher to “sync up” the composition to the video. WV might claim “promotional consideration” if they really are using the clips as teasers for DVDs or soundtracks, but it’s harder to secure such permission after the fact. Plus WV is still liable for sync fees, plus mechanicals for each unit sold (and many publishers ask for advances).
It’s probably the artists’ publishers who have the best case. Led Zeppelin in particular is notorious for saying no to everything (except car commercials, I guess). Someone at Bill Graham Presents didn’t think this through.
i knew it was too good to last. gonna have to go out and buy some new riders of the purple sage boots to make myself feel better.