Lars Ulrich Pirates His Own Album 672
rudeboy1 writes "Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica, and long time opponent of file sharing admitted to 'pirating' his own album, Death Magnetic last year. 'I sat there myself and downloaded "Death Magnetic" from the Internet just to try it,' he said. 'I was like, "Wow, this is how it works." I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download "Death Magnetic" for free, it's me.'"
Just think... (Score:5, Interesting)
if he had had any clue BEFORE he went on his insane rants, we might be in better shape and the music industry might be in better shape too.
Lars Ulrich has caused problems trying to stop new artists from entering the system and promoting their music and concerts. Oh wait, right, he's one of the few who got through the glass ceiling and has now spent the last 10 years making ever-shittier "music" [blogspot.com] while pulling the ladder up behind him.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:5, Interesting)
When you P2P, you not only take the data for yourself, you also help spread the data around.
So, my accessment is that I was freely 'given' the Album directly from Lars. Therefore, as I was freely given the album anonymously by one of the original artists- I didn't steal it either. That is assuming, of course, that I would bother to download his 'music'.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:0, Interesting)
I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download "Death Magnetic" for free, it's me.
I thought this was one of his rights as copyright-holder of the works...
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:3, Interesting)
I wouldn't bet that he's the copyright holder. That is usually the label.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:5, Interesting)
Some acts in the past have actually gotten rich enough to buy back the copyright and have exclusive control over their music, but not many do.
Given the age and success of Metallica, I wouldn't bet that Lars and the rest of the band don't have a firm grip on the copyrights to their songs, even if it's through a holding company like the beetles had it done.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:3, Interesting)
Furthermore, when Lars downloaded the album by P2P, he implicated himself in any future RIAA witch hunts. Now when the recording industry thugs go after their latest batch of victims, they'll have to include Lars Ulrich in the target list.
If they don't target him just like any other poor slob on the internet, the RIAA stands to lose money. The industry works by strongarming regular folks who get caught downloading music, but when untouchable band members start clogging up the docket there's that much less money to be made by suing regular people.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:3, Interesting)
Usually the artist retains the copyright on the lyrics, but the actual sound recording belongs to the label.
As others have posted, this is not the case with Metallica, who do own the rights to their work, and most likely license the distribution rights to a label.
Re:Nice hyper headline (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually the headline is technically correct.
Since Lars and the band perform the song(s) and probably have some rights to the song(s)
Precisely: some rights, but not all. Metallica signed an exclusive distribution contract which grants complete control over distribution of these particular recordings to their label, and since the copy produced by downloading wasn't authorised under the terms of that contract it is indeed a pirate copy (note that if he wanted to give away a physical CD, it would be taken from stock and billed to the band as a promotional expense). The fact that he co-wrote the music makes no difference, except that it might also be a breach of contract.
The same applies to published authors, BTW. That's pretty much what "published" means: your work in someone else's hands.
Photographers are slightly different, as its relatively rare for a photographer to sign an exclusive deal with a gallery that extends beyond the duration of an exhibition. In general, they retain all the rights to their work unless it was commissioned.
But please, let's not let common sense get in the way of people justifying not paying performers for their work.
Common sense and copyright are mutually exclusive. That's why so few people understand it.
(Disclosure: I'm a published songwriter/musician, formerly signed to Warner, BMG, Universal and a number of smaller labels, currently working in television production. I'm probably the last person who would try to justify not paying performers).
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:5, Interesting)
Your are hitting the nail on the head. But something needs to be added here:
Music is actually a commodity. Really. The world is full of people who could, and would do a more or less equivalent job.
If it was a true free market situation, it would be over saturated to the point where music would be free anyway.
The major labels have positioned themselves as gate keepers and most of their work for the last 10 years has been about keeping the sender from the receiver, and maintain the artificial scarcity.
But thanks to the internet their days are numbered no matter what, and that makes me happy.
I've always liked Metallica (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a big fan. I have all of their CDs up until when they started nagging about Napster (ReLoad is the latest studio recording and S&M the latest live I own). I have not bought a single Metallica CD since. I have not downloaded anything either. I have never heard Saint Anger or Death Magnetic. I had the opportunity to see them in Denver during the Saint Anger tour and decided against it. Their whole attitude about electronic media disgusts me. The whole rebel act they put forward in their songs is just that then, just an act. When they don't understand an issue and so much as suspect it might hurt the bottom line, they side with the man. Bah.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Mod parent down clueless... (Score:5, Interesting)
You're clearly missing GP's point. The point is that the RIAA wants to call file sharing and infringement the exact same thing as stealing a disk from a store. If that's true, and it's ok for Lars to 'Pirate' his own music, then it's also ok for him to walk into any music store and walk out with one of his CDs, because it's the exact same thing.
So here's the valid choices:
A. Piracy is theft, and since Metallica owns the rights to their own stuff, it's ok for any of them to pirate any of their music or walk into a store and grab one of their CDs.
B. Piracy is theft, but it's not ok for Lars to walk into a music store and grab a copy of his own disk and walk out without paying for it, therefore pirating his own music is also not ok, and the RIAA has to sue him and demand the same fines from him that they demand from every other "pirate".
C. Piracy is not theft, therefore since Metallica owns the rights to their own music, it's ok for Lars to pirate his own music even though it's not ok for him to steal a disk from a store.
There are no other options.
I wonder if he pired the fan-remastered version (Score:2, Interesting)
People Get Your Heads Out of Your Asses! (Score:1, Interesting)
I like how people rewrite history here! Metallica sued Napster, because they discovered that someone stole tapes from their studio for a song which they were working on (the song was "I Disappear" from the MI:2 Soundtrack). At the time Metallica requested that the song be removed from Napster, but they refused. When Lars said that this was costing him money he was right. The way Metallica delivers music to their Record Company is that they pay for the recording of the song and then present it to the record company. The fear was that since the song was already out there, the label may refuse it.
Metallica was 100% right. Napster was 100% wrong!
Re:Shut up about USENET already! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's true... one of my friends is an IP attorney for one of the big labels. That didn't stop him from "borrowing" my hard drive full of music. A friend of my wife works for a different big media company, again as an attorney. Her husband actually uses her company laptop for p2p, to the constant admonishment of his wife.
It's about money, not morals. The two IP lawyers that I speak about are not monsters and they like p2p just as much as the rest of us do. But they are lawyers and will do whatever is in the best interest of their clients/employers, just as ethics dictates.
Re:You Have Stolen From Your Bandmates & the R (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel really bad for Lars.
First, he had to suffer the financial losses from all this p2p stuff, and now that he's publicly admitted to it he's going to have to pay for an expensive legal battle against the RIAA.
I mean, unless the RIAA doesn't go after him. But a high profile music person like him admitting this in a highly public venue? Not prosecuting him would be tantamount to the RIAA admitting their side is not logical & internally consistent...
Ulrich is likely a copyright infringer. (Score:3, Interesting)
I doubt that's a correct assessment. Artists who sign with major labels often don't own the songs they will write or the recorded performances they will make during the time they're under contract. Without knowing the particulars of Ulrich's contract I can't be absolutely certain what legitimate copyright claim he has on "Death Magnetic". But there's a good chance Ulrich isn't a copyright holder on that album. Which means that contrary to the /. and Torrentfreak headline, this album is likely not "his own album" it's Metallica's label's album. And Ulrich cannot license works on which he isn't a copyright holder. So Ulrich is not licensed to upload a copy of those recorded performances to you or anyone else.