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From: boingboing <rssfeeds@example.com>
Subject: Record industry defends practices to Senate
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 08:01:08 -0000
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URL: http://boingboing.net/#85513221
Date: Not supplied

The Joint Hearing of the Senate Committee and Senate Select Committee on the 
Entertainment Industry is underway in LA, investigating artists' claims that 
the labels engage in unfair and corrupt business-practices. The first day's 
findings at the hearings are really quite remarkable: 

    By contract, artists are prohibited from showing royalty statements to 
    third parties. Normally this would not include their mangers, lawyers, 
    consultants, or others who could aid them in getting paid, but apparently 
    this is not necessarily the case. Senator Kevin Murray, leading the 
    initiative for artists' rights, claimed the that Cary Sherman, Chief 
    Counsel for the RIAA himself, said to him in an interview, that RIAA 
    members (the major labels) would sue any artist that broke ranks and shared 
    information with the Committee. This claim was rejected by Sherman but 
    supported by others in the room. Don Henley, among them, outwardly dared 
    his record company to sue him for bringing royalty statements to the 
    hearing. He presented his most recent royalty statement for "Hell Freezes 
    Over," which showed the panel that even though his contract called for a no 
    more than a 10% "reserve" on sales of records shipped, Universal Music had 
    held back more than that for eleven pay periods (roughly under three years) 
    and that, even though his contract calls for no free goods in Europe, they 
    had deducted $87,000 in free goods charges to Europe.  

Link[1] Discuss[2] (_Thanks, Paul!_)

[1] http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=6675
[2] http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/jU9jRkFhUcp