Since I start Product Shop NYC in 2001, I've posted thousands of tracks and have only received two cease & desist letters. Each time, I've immediately complied with the request and removed the track. Yesterday was the first time a record label had my website shut down.
After I posted "Conquest" and "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)," two songs that could be found on numerous other websites and will appear on The White Stripes upcoming album on Warner Bros, a letter was sent to me asking me to remove the files. As any reader of this site noticed, the tracks were immediately removed. Roughly six hours after removing the tracks, my website was shut down at the request of Warner Bros and/or the company they hired to search the internet for leaks.
I have spent the last day working to get this site back online. We are now back online. Hello. Hi.
Why did they choose to take action against me? I don't know. I complied with their request and did as they asked. I've been nothing but supportive of the White Stripes and will continue to support the band. I buy their records, spend a ton of money on concert tickets and have given them an absolute ton of free publicity by covering almost everything they've ever done.
Major labels are happy to send along a million press releases, update us on every single move a band makes, feed us into their machine, but if we show our support by exposing people to the actual music, then we get shut down?
People want to buy music. Not an image.
Comments (9)
I figured the picture of Beth Ditto had crashed your server.
Posted on May 30, 2007 1:33 PM
good to have you back. warners are clearly wankers but i'm not sure what all this says about the white stripes if they sign to a label that employs such heavy-handed tactics (one album deal or not).
Posted on May 30, 2007 1:39 PM
good to have you back. warners are clearly wankers but i'm not sure what all this says about the white stripes if they sign to a label that employs such heavy-handed tactics (one album deal or not).
Posted on May 30, 2007 1:40 PM
And it all happened two seconds before I pressed 'send' on my lengthy blovation about the Beth Ditto NME cover!
But anyway, fuck yeah, well handled Jason.
And in anticipation of further comments .. I don't see how this reflects on the White Stripes. It reflects on Warner Bros.
Posted on May 30, 2007 6:59 PM
Suppose I had a website that promoted peaches (and not Peaches). Suppose I bought tons of peaches personally and told everyone I knew that peaches were the best thing ever.
Does that give me the right to go to a store that sells peaches and start throwing them out the front door to bypassers? Even if I truly believe that each of those people will turn around a buy a dozen peaches a day for the rest of their lives?
The decision to give away something that has a known value (99 cents on iTunes) cannot be the decision of someone who does not own the product.
My worry is that good indie music is becoming unsustainable because of the number of blogs that give away the music even before it's commercially released. The majority of indie listeners, unlike me, are kids who generally don't have a ton of disposable income. You can't expect the majority of them to turn around and pay for something when loads of people are tossing it to them for free from inside the store.
I'm sure that music bloggers are massive music fans. I'm sure they spend a lot of their own time and money on music, tickets, merch. To expect that everyone who visits your site does the same is presumptious.
To give away things that don't belong to you to drive traffic to that site (and increase GoogleAds rev) is highly dubious.
Saying big record companies are evil, stupid, short sighted etc doesn't excuse the simple fact that they own something that you are choosing to give away to thousands of people.
Posted on May 31, 2007 12:22 PM
I agree with g. You're basically a thief if you're posting a link to a free download. You deserve to be shut down.
Posted on May 31, 2007 4:06 PM
did they invoke the DMCA
act with you ISP and shut it
down that way. Did your ISP
tell you what the process was.
Posted on May 31, 2007 8:36 PM
Funny how the RIAA looks the other way from a major corporation and a government licensed radio station, whom the Music Director admitted received the album from a file sharing site. Can that be used as a defense to any RIAA lawsuits against ordinary citizens who are found with illegal files. It seems they (The Radio Station) violated numerous copyright laws by obtaining the album from a file sharing site. Of course it could be a whole marketing scam.
Posted on June 3, 2007 11:41 AM
I had easy time reading your blog. But it seems now it's over :(. Man, this post sucks. I hope at least the next one won't be.
Posted on April 9, 2008 6:20 AM