Amoeba Music's Vinyl Vaults project

[usagi]

some of you have probably heard about this Vinyl Vaults project that Amoeba is doing. essentially they're digitising rare/out-of-print vinyl to sell online via download, and there's legal/ethical controversy around how the profits and rights work in this situation.

records for which Amoeba have not been able to identify rights-owners basically have the digital sales proceeds held in escrow. the argument in Amoeba's favour is that this setup allows them to pay rights-owners who approach them, the argument against Amoeba is that they've done a poor job of identifying and communicating with the rights-owners in the first place and that they're essentially looting/kicking small labels in the teeth.

here's a Quietus article that explains it better than I can. excerpt:

 

 

Through putting in place the escrow system, it appears as though Amoeba have sought to establish themselves as the de-facto owners of the music. By doing so, they ignore the well-established process of re-releasing music that a host of dedicated reissue imprints have been practising for years, and are also taking profit from the sales, payment that gets shared only when and - perhaps more crucially - if the actual owners come forward.

 

I've seen some interesting discussion come out of this. what do music-makers and label owners here think?

[Mellow U]

Terrible idea. Just because something is likely made by someone who cannot be found for compensation does not give Amoeba the right to issue it in any way, shape or form. Even if they promise to pay the originator of the material if they come forward, there is still the presumption that they consented to the music being made available in the first place.

[Mellow U]

Further, one has to wonder about the actual quality of these "reissues" - i.e. if Amoeba had access to masters then presumably they would have been in contact with someone close to the source. Since this is extremely unlikely, we can assume that Amoeba are selling personal rips of things that could arguably be found via P2Ps or via someone tracking the record itself down. Both scenarios are fair outcomes from what could have simply been a blog post's worth of "we recommend this" exposure, rather than Amoeba taking the material into their own hands and making a quick buck on it after a hasty look both ways before crossing the street.

[Guest yikes]

totally fucked

[BobDobalina]

Terrible idea. Just because something is likely made by someone who cannot be found for compensation does not give Amoeba the right to issue it in any way, shape or form. Even if they promise to pay the originator of the material if they come forward, there is still the presumption that they consented to the music being made available in the first place.

 

This. How do they establish how much is to be held in escrow? I admittedly know little about the subject but it would seem that financial terms need to be established/negotiated with the copyright holder beforehand, and that copyright holders reserve the right to simply not license a recording at all.

 

Good article too -

 

Daar adds that the rare nature of the music in Vinyl Vaults provides no defence legally. "The United States copyright laws do not contemplate or provide an exemption for out of print music compositions. In addition, there is no legal excuse for infringement even if it is done in good faith and the money from the infringement is held in trust. Accordingly, unless Amoeba has the express permission of the correct copyright owner(s) it runs the risk of being liable for copyright infringement," he says.

 

From a legal self-interest standpoint this is incredibly stupid on the part of Amoeba. Here's hoping they get sued and that a precedent is set to quash future nonsense like this.