When the RIAA sues a student for sharing files or a company for infringing its copyrights, they're fond of trotting out the artists they represent, claiming that infringement steals from them.
As it turns out, artists may not be receiving their fair share of the hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements that EMI, Universal, and Warner won from Napster ($270 million), Bolt, Kazaa, and other companies (Sony/BMG's parent company invested in Napster).
According to John Branca, a lawyer who has worked for heavyweights such as The Rolling Stones, Don Henley, and Korn, as quoted in the New York Post,
Label sources cited by the Post claimed that they would need to figureout exactly how much each artist's work was infringed before they couldpay out, and that they would, of course, need to deduct relevantexpenses before divvying up the booty. Big surprise there.
Irving Azoff, manager for Jewel and The Eagles, said that the labelswould eventually have to pay some amount to artists eventually. "Theywill play hide and seek, but eventually will be forced to paysomething. The record companies have even tried to creditunrecouped accounts. It's never easy for an artist to get paid theirfair share."
