p2pnet.net news:- In a dog-eat-dog settlement, Big 4 corporate music cartel members Warner and BMG, have reached a $110 million deal over their dragged-out Napster dispute.

Way back before Bertelsmann’s unfortunate (for Bertelsmann, aka BMG) association with Sony, and before Canada’s Edgar Bronfman jr took the Warner helm, “Warner Music Group Chairman Roger Ames wouldn’t budge,” wrote Jeff Leeds in a Los Angeles Times story that’s no longer online. “The industry veteran refused last summer to join an effort by his four major competitors to sue illegal downloaders who were crushing the industry’s bottom line.

“Ames insisted that before the labels unleashed their attorneys and risked a potential public relations backlash, they needed to provide consumers with an alternative, a place where the pirates could legally download songs from all five major record companies.”

Ames, “made it clear to everyone that we weren’t prepared to go forward with lawsuits until there were attractive and comprehensive online services up and running,” the story had David Johnson, Warner Music’s general counsel, declaring.

Obviously, no one was listening.

Bertelsmann had, meanwhile, “outraged its competitors in 2000 by providing financial support to ailing Napster Inc., the pioneering online service that allowed music fans to obtain free songs with a click of the mouse,” said Leeds. “The purchase came at a time when the German company’s BMG music division had joined the industry’s lawsuits against the file-swapping network.”

With the Napster buy, BMG also acquired copyright problems which four years on, has cost it $110 million.

“Bertelsmann has settled similar claims from British music company EMI Group PLC, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and their respective music publishing units in recent months,” says the Canadian Press, but, “Several music publishers still have pending claims against Bertelsmann.”

Roxio later bought Napster and has ever since been trying, and failing, to make it live up to its expectations.

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Also See:
Canadian Press - Warner Music reaches US$110M deal with Bertelsmann related to Napster alliance, April 24, 2007
pending claims - BMG, Napster ruling, June 4, 2005

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