Band Accuses EMI Of Illegal Practices
By Christopher Nickson
November 05, 2007
King Crimson says EMI has been offering its music for download although it doesn't hold the rights.
A download service accused of piracy and illegally offering music to the public? It’s a scenario that seems to have a depressingly familiar ring these days, doesn’t it?
But in a strange twist on the normal, it’s a band making the accusation – and it’s not against some fly-by-night outfit, but against one of the world’s largest record companies, EMI.
In a blog on the band’s web site, King Crimson founder Robert Fripp claimed that EMI had made band tracks available for download, even though they didn’t own the download rights for the material.
"It is a little rich to punish punters for illegal downloads of EMI copyright material when EMI is itself guilty of copyright violation," Fripp wrote. “At the beginning of the license period, there was no such item as downloads; at the end of the period (December 31st. 2003), downloads were clearly an important part of the future. The EMI license was not renewed because we were not willing to approve download rights – even though they aren’t important!”
King Crimson is evidently now taking legal action against EMI.