Record Labels, Banks and Situational Ethics

What an interesting day it is -

The major record labels are known for their harsh stance on copyright infringements, which in an ironic turn of events is now costing them millions of dollars. Revealing a double standard when it comes to ‘piracy’, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music now have to pay Canadian artists $45 Million for the illegal use of thousands of tracks on compilation CDs.

Over the years the labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or copyright infringements) has grown to 300,000 in Canada alone.

This questionable practice has been the subject of an interesting Canadian class action lawsuit which was started in 2008. A group of artists and composers who grew tired of waiting endlessly for their money filed a lawsuit against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local equivalent of the RIAA.

Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music were sued for the illegal use of thousands of tracks and risked paying damages of up to $6 billion. Today the news broke that the two parties have agreed upon a settlement, where the record labels are required to pay $45 million to settle the copyright infringement claims.

The Real Effect
Ah, now this gets to the heart of the matter doesn't it?

Today we are subjected to many labels that are often less based on law and more based on fiat displays of raw power. Terms like "democracy", "freedom", "pirate" and "free" are bandied about without little thought to the power behind these terms and ideas.

In this instance, we have an empowered group of individuals with nothing more than pure power bullying segments of the population into personal serfdom for a sole act of copying. Yet, when these same entities are confronted on the logical extension of their personal position, their response is 'It's different.' Why different? Who knows.

This illustrates the growing aristocratic class that is granting itself titles of nobility in this country. For instance - If you don't pay your mortgage, you lose your house. If the bank doesn't pay theirs, they get to pay a small fee and keep the property, sometimes even if they never even owned it in the first place. If you go to a casino, blow all your money, I'm guessing you won't be getting a bailout. And if you break into someones car, I highly doubt you'll be exonerated as keeping the peace. (Let's not even get into the insanity of the right to be free from guns law.)

No, this country exists under the pretense that there is equal justice under the law. First and foremost the natural law, followed by the Supreme Law, the Constitution. It is high time that we get it into our thick skulls that the solution to these 'problems' is equal standing before the law and not special laws that 'deal' with situations.