News: EMI threatens IFPI - reorganize or we quit!Posted on Thursday, May 08 @ 14:31:48 BST |
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 Last year, after being purchased by equity firm Terra Firma, EMI started looking at exactly what the trade organizations they help fund with membership fees were doing to earn their money. We reported in November of last year that the answer was apparently "not enough," and the company was considering backing out of the RIAA because they didn't feel that they were getting their money's worth. Based on a recent article in Variety, things are a little more complicated than that.
While many people, both in the U.S. and internationally, are familiar with the RIAA, most notably for being behind the American campaign of lawsuits against P2P file sharers who offer copyrighted songs for download. But once you leave the U.S. the RIAA has relatively little pull, and not much standing as a lobbying organization. For this reason the four major labels also belong to a number of other trade groups, most notably the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Rather than simply backing out of the RIAA (and other industry groups) as sources had indicated last year, it appears the company is actually doing something significantly more calculated. According to Variety, EMI sent a letter to IFPI officials stating their intention to end their association with the organization unless they bring their own interests and goals into alignment with EMI's.
Reportedly tje company's real goal isn't so much to cut off any particular organization, but rather to merge them into a single entity responsible for fullfilling the goals of labels, including anti-piracy action and lobbying. An anonymous source told Variety “This is not a case of just saying bye-bye (to trade orgs). In some countries, the trade bodies are also collection agencies.”
The letter reportedy indicates that EMI plans to terminate membership on March 31 of this year if they don't have a proposal ready by that date detailing their plans to re-organize.
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Posted on Thursday, May 08 @ 14:31:48 BST |
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