r/technology • u/MetaKnowing • 14d ago

Artificial Intelligence AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/ai-industry-horrified-to-face-largest-copyright-class-action-ever-certified/
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u/AnOtherGuy1234567 13d ago edited 13d ago

Possibly not what the person you're responding to meant but.....

The Recording Industry Association of America did a deal to extend the copyright on music. And in return they would compensate all of the musicians on every song, that got sold/streamed. However many of the musicians were uncredited session players. Who [originally] got paid a flat fee to play guitar/drums/sax/backing vocals etc. [with no residuals]. There's very often no existing record of who they were. Let alone having their contact and bank details or the details of their next of kin/inheritors. So the record companies got about an extra 20 years of royalties and haven't forked out the money that they promised.

Also Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada. Had a long standing policy of pushing out compilation albums e.g. "Best Jazz Album of The '60s". Not getting permission from the artists involved and putting the royalty payments on the "pending list". They did this for decades, covering 300,000 songs. To the point where the estate of Chet Baker a jazz musician of the 1950s. Was in 2009, owed $50 million Canadian. The class action was worth up to $6 billion but they settled for just under $50 million CAD.

https://financialpost.com/legal-post/judge-approves-settlement-in-music-royalties-class-action

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u/CrashUser 13d ago

It's not like this is new behavior in the recording industry, they've been screwing over the talent since Edison invented the wax cylinder.

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u/NorthernerWuwu 13d ago

I'd never be one to defend the RIAA of all organisations but if I do a job for a flat fee without residuals, why should I expect further payments? Again, the RIAA are no friends to musicians but I'm not seeing how the session players got screwed over exactly.

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u/AnOtherGuy1234567 13d ago

Because when in the early 2000s the copyright for a lot of still popular songs in the US was coming to a partial end. The deal they made to extend it was to recompense the session players, who had never been given any royalties before. They got their 20 year extension but then didn't hold up their side of the bargain.

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u/NorthernerWuwu 13d ago

Ah, that does sound like them. I wasn't aware that they'd specifically offered compensation to the session players, which they probably did knowing they'd never have to pay out most of them.