The major music labels, led by Sony and Universal, are taking legal action against the Internet Archive in order to halt the non-profit organization’s Great 78 Project. This initiative aims to digitize and preserve recordings from old 78 RPM records, a format that was discontinued in 1959. The labels argue that the Archive, which is often considered the internet’s public library, is violating their copyrights by digitizing tracks from renowned artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. The labels are seeking damages of $150,000 for each copyrighted recording, amounting to a total of approximately $372 million.
The objective of the project is to safeguard “underrepresented artists and genres” that might otherwise be forgotten. While some songs from the past continue to be remembered by the public, there are countless others that risk being lost to history. The best-case scenario for these songs is that their publishers store the original recordings properly, in case there is ever a need to reproduce them. However, given the ease with which…
2023-08-14 06:15:17
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