Hi everybody,

this is basically a rough translation of a post I made on my german blog (the webspace is also located in Germany). Please excuse any mistakes, as I am not that good in english.

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I hosted "My Violent Heart" on my own webspace and provided a flash player to give my readers the ability to listen to it (no download). Copyright owner of this song is the Universal Music GmbH (Germany), who sent me a cease and desist order along with an invoice for 506 Euro (about 670$), since I am the one responsible for the webspace and provided copyrighted material to the public (as they state).

Well, there are a few odds along with this order.

First, I also got instructed about the rights I aquire (and way more, which I don't) by buying a CD, for example not to make any copies and especially don't provide it to the public. It seems like they thought I made a copy off a CD.

I'm totally aware of the rights I aquire with an aquisition of a CD. However, the song isn't available for purchase until the release of the album on April 17th (maybe a little earlier on iTunes). I can't see the reason at all for the instructions they mentioned. After all, there wasn't even a download possibility on my website, only listening was permitted. And I would had removed this permission as well, if the song was purchasable in any way, at the latest on April 17th.

But this song was spread in a complete other way: A viral marketing campaign for the release of the upcoming album. Actually, the MP3 file was saved on an USB keychain, which was "lost" on a toilet during the concert in Lissabon. This "phenomenon" happened again in Barcelona with another song. So one could assume that this is some sort of abetting to do something illegal, but still I had the feeling, that in spirit with the whole campaign, it would be okay to distribute it. Obviously I was wrong. I even don't know if Universal is aware of the campaign at all.

Another odd thing, the lawyers were damn fast. After writing the post to my website, it took them not even 24 hours to get the cease and desist order on track. What's interesting: I re-encoded the song with a lower bitrate to save bandwidth, so all the usual search mechanisms, like checksum, filesize and -name doesn't work. I assume there was a real person behind this who really listened to the song. I wonder if anyone besides me got legal issues.

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Please let me know what you think about this. If anything's unclear, I'd be happy to help out.

Also, if a person of Interscope, the producers or anyone else involved in the organisation of the campaign or maybe Nine Inch Nails, respectively Trent Reznor itself (I don't know if he tracks this forum) would like to get in contact with me, it would be really appreciated, as there are still some things I would like to know.

Cheers, Christoph

They obviously don't know what the fuck they're on about.

506 Euros! It's a clue!

lol

Wow, that is really harsh.
I've wondered about this myself, and there has been some discussion about if it's "ok" to spread the track or not.

It would be nice if Trent, who must have authorized the use of the track for the ARG, would contact Universal Germany for you and tell them to STFU.

But it may not be just the "piracy" of the track that they're unhappy about - since people have to visit your site to listen to the track, you may be getting money from advertising displayed on your site - and so making money off the track.
I don't know if this is the case at all, but it makes me wonder.

Good luck!

There is no advertising whatsoever on my website, so this is not the point. In fact, I do believe that this is only about the "piracy" acting. Of course I will admit that I made a mistake if the distribution of the song is indeed illegal. However, I do not know this for sure, which is why I really urge someone involved in the campaign to contact me. It doesn't have to be through this forum - I mean, I do like this campaign and don't want to spoil anything if some informations are to be treated confidential - like for example the person responsible for placing the USB sticks.

Cheers, Christoph

Well of course I have no idea about German law, but I thought that if you can prove music is freely distributed to begin with, you can't get in trouble for broadcasting it - this is how a lot of online radio stations survive. The problem is, this may mean that NIN would have to legally admit for being responsible for the leaks?

Jesus, he only wants to host a song, not start WW4.

Tell them to go fuck themselves and you'll consider any further e.mails harassment and file charges.

Talk to them on the phone and explain that the song is FREELY AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET and you are only redistributing it.

Yes indeed, NIN or the company with the name that can't be written here . And that's also my problem: the whole campaign works through obscurity, finding out things, searching, guessing, revealing and so on. However, in this special situation guessing is of no help.

But like I also said, all information given to me regarding this campaign will be treated absolutely confidential, I would not spoil it in any way.

Cheers, Christoph

About 99% of C&D letters about things online are just scare and no charges are ever filed. Don't let them scare you. I know people who have gotten them before and nothing ever happened.

Maybe get someone with a spiral membership to repost this at the spiral for you - Trent and the band often check the website, you may get some help?

Have you emailed them back explaining the ARG campaign? Send them some links including the NIN Hotline, and even to the NIN myspaces which I believe have the new songs up to listen to! Explain the artist is fully aware and has given permission for their music to be distributed freely around the internet.

Emailing them back or calling them and explaining about the ARG will be pointless and a waste of your time. They will not listen. They have already decided to send the cease ad desist letter. You can just take it down/paythe bill and be done with it. Or you can wait until they file charges. The ARG and origin of the leaked tracks would then be evidence you could present in court. I doubt a judge would rule in favor of Universal Music GmbH when the viral marteting was "their" strategy to begin with. You can't hand out a song and then take it back. granted, it probably was not their strategy, they are probably the exclusive CR holder in Germany and had nothing to do with production/marketing. In that case, their legal issue is with the Original copyright holder (is that Trent, or is it still a record company?) not you.

They shouldn't be able to charge you more than the market value of the track.


Last time I checked, there was no market value for the track because THE TRACK DOESN'T EXIST ON THE MARKET.


You shouldn't be forking over money for distributing (which you weren't even doing) something that has no market value.


Universal is a fucking pain in the ass.

I'm posting this on The Spiral right now.

Thank you Shadowless, it is really appreciated!

Cheers, Christoph

That's B.S.

I'll post something on the hotline later today -- don't make any rash decisions, hold out, and I'm sure this can be wiped away.

Levi, it's time to send in Bruce Willis.