URL: http://boingboing.net/#85513221
Date: Not supplied
The Joint Hearing of the Senate Committee and Senate Select Committee on the
Entertainment Industry is underway in LA, investigating artists' claims that
the labels engage in unfair and corrupt business-practices. The first day's
findings at the hearings are really quite remarkable:
By contract, artists are prohibited from showing royalty statements to
third parties. Normally this would not include their mangers, lawyers,
consultants, or others who could aid them in getting paid, but apparently
this is not necessarily the case. Senator Kevin Murray, leading the
initiative for artists' rights, claimed the that Cary Sherman, Chief
Counsel for the RIAA himself, said to him in an interview, that RIAA
members (the major labels) would sue any artist that broke ranks and shared
information with the Committee. This claim was rejected by Sherman but
supported by others in the room. Don Henley, among them, outwardly dared
his record company to sue him for bringing royalty statements to the
hearing. He presented his most recent royalty statement for "Hell Freezes
Over," which showed the panel that even though his contract called for a no
more than a 10% "reserve" on sales of records shipped, Universal Music had
held back more than that for eleven pay periods (roughly under three years)
and that, even though his contract calls for no free goods in Europe, they
had deducted $87,000 in free goods charges to Europe.
Link[1] Discuss[2] (_Thanks, Paul!_)
[1] http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=6675
[2] http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/jU9jRkFhUcp

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