Dear Grooveshark: Seriously?!
The Constable on August 25th, 2008
Dear Grooveshark:
Are you serious? You’re actually selling songs that you know you don’t have rights to, and just putting the money into a slush fund so you can pay the record labels, etc. when you get the deal done? Seriously?!
recent twitter conversation:
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Grooveshark @ipthieves and @ielliott exactly! except for streaming royalties (already work with ASCAP etc. for those) |
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ipthieves @Grooveshark re:iElliott… so basically you don’t have a license yet, but are putting the money in a fund to pay royalties once you do? |
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Grooveshark @iElliott not to be cryptic, but 58 seconds in: http://tinyurl.com/6p9vr4 |
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iElliott @grooveshark - how did you get rights to sell Beatles MP3s? You’d be the only one as far as I know… |
In my experience, if there is one way to kill any chances of going legit, it is to do exactly what you are doing. Your system of posting songs and paying ASCAP / streaming rights is more than likely fine, but to sell content that you know you don’t have rights to is extraordinarily risky.
From the deals I’ve worked on, one thing has stood out - and that is that there are many publishers and labels out there who simply will not work with a business if they have openly violated copyright law.
The simple fact that you have songs from The Beatles available for sale on your service, when not even iTunes has gotten this, is an extraordinarily bad move on your part, if your goal is to be a legal service with actual licenses. It’s one thing to hold royalties if you don’t know if you have rights. That’s debatable, but to hold royalties when you KNOW you don’t have rights….
All I can say is good luck, and I hope you have a good lawyer on retainer.
