Lil Loyalties, Lotta Suing

 We are used to seeing musical artists getting jilted out of the money earned from selling their music.  We know that free downloads can rarely be stopped and continue to rob the artists of their full loyalties.  What we rarely hear of is a producer of music getting jilted, but in this case, it seems that Lil Wayne has not paid up.

In an article regarding this hot story, Gil Kaufman the writer of MTV article stated that “It’s almost given.  An artist scores a major hit that sells millions of records and a short time is sued by someone either claiming he or she wrote the song or worked on it and didn’t get a fair slice of the pie.”  It is not surprising that when money is made, that there are plenty of people ready to claim it.  Just like Facebook.  Facebook “Owner” Mark Zuckerberg has already experienced that several times over, being sued by the twin set of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss for supposedly stealing their idea.  Then he was sued by his business partner as we all watched in the Movie “The Social Network.”  On June 30, 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet fuel company tried to claim 84% ownership of the company. 

As for Lil Wayne, on March 31, 2011 a lawsuit was filed against him - for 20 million by Darius Harrison the CO-producer of Lil Wayne’s music, for not being given enough loyalties for the song “Lollipop”. Darius Harrison has claimed that he has help produced tones of Lil Wayne’s greatest hits as well but he has not received a good cut of the money.  He has tried to sue him in the past for the same reason in 2008 on a few songs one was called “Mrs. Officer” for the exact same reason.  At this time, Lil Wayne keeps recording his music and the lawsuit is still undecided.   

Picture is made by Salvator Vuono link to his profile (http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=659)

Teens Downloading by the Minute

Lots of music gets downloaded every year, but we never really know the exact amount of people that do the downloading. Thanks to the guys at Music Week we are a little closer to figuring out how many teens download music every year. Another big question we want answered is the reason why teens download music illegally, and thanks to the guys at Pew Internet and American Life Project we now have a little more insight. The annual Digital Music Survey surveyed 4000 people, and the results will surprise even the most avid music downloader. The Digital Music Survey found out that teenagers are probably the age group who download the highest amount of music a year and they are the ones more able to get caught. Entertainment Media Research and Law Firm Olswang stated that “of teenage customers, 40% download music from unauthorized sites.” That is about less than half, but it’s still a lot of teens that choose to illegally download music. The people at Pew Internet and America life project reported “that 33% percent of teens download music from the internet and a high percentage of teens think it nonsense to think people won’t download illegally.”

The reasons why teenagers download music can differ. Sometimes money is an issue and it is a simple thing to do. Sometimes teenagers don’t have enough money to plop down ten or more dollars on a new CD, and sometimes we just want one song off the album but still don’t want to pay the standard $.99 or even $1.99 for a song. What teenagers end up dong is simply going on the internet and finding all the songs they want for free it is illegal but, they can get all the songs they want. Sometimes we can even get easy to use programs such as Lime Wire. It is a program that is easy to get and we can download all the music we want.

 The concerns that some teenagers get when they download music differ. Music Week magazine stated that “39% of teens think it is unfair to the artist, 29% of teens are concerned about viruses that can harm their computer from file sharing sites.” Some teenagers might not even think about the risk they are getting into when they download music. My concern when I download music is the viruses that will harm my computer.

The amount of trouble teenagers can get into just for downloading a song from a file sharing site are very different you can either pay a huge fine for stealing copy righted music or even go to jail. Even though we all love music and we want to get it for the best price, you must be careful, the risk of getting caught will be a much greater price than the price of a CD.

   Picture is done by Pixomar's at www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=905

Welcome!

Let’s get ready to rock!

This is the first of many Hot Tunes posts that I will be writing about downloading music. Specifically, I will be talking about the risk of downloading music and the negative outcome that can happen to anyone who illegally downloads music.

I’m just a normal high school student whose life revolves around music. I like playing music as well as listening to music all day, every day. When a new CD of one of my favorite bands comes out I try to hurry to the store and buy it. Sometimes I don’t have enough money or I just want one song off of the album. Like most people, I just go to a site where somebody has put up a file sharing system where you can get the whole CD for free but, most people don't know the risk in doing so.

Sometimes I will get talked into downloading music or to make a CD for a friend. Even though it might sound simple and a nice thing to do, I’m actually endangering myself to copyright laws against illegally downloading music and illegal distribution.

I hear stories about people getting busted downloading music, making and selling illegal copies. Although it sounds scary, I won’t get in trouble right? I mean as long as I’m not selling them or downloading lots of music I won’t get in too much trouble will I? After all, I’m just a teenager who likes music like everybody else.

Over the next few weeks I will be giving more in depth detail about the risk of downloading music and alternatives to downloading music. I will also be asking the opinions of my readers as to what they think of illegally downloading music and what they think should or shouldn’t be done to people that illegally download music.

So sit back and enjoy the music!

This photo is from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
This Photo was made by Giovanni Sades at www.freedigitalphotos.net/giovannisades