Canadian Music News
WINNIPEGS KEN MODE GET IN SPAT WITH MYSPACE AND WARNER MUSIC GROUP OVER MISTAKEN COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
By Jason Schreurs
It seems Winnipeg noise rockers KEN Mode are now fighting the same battle that British singer Edwyn Collins fought back in mid-October. As we previously told you, Collins went up against Warner Music Group and MySpace over a dispute around copyright ownership, finally getting rights to post his hit song "A Girl Like You" after a lengthy case of email tag and negative press.
Now KEN Mode singer/guitarist Jesse Matthewson is entwined in a similar fiasco with the corporate-giants-that-be at MySpace after they removed three of the band's songs earlier this week, citing that Warner Music Group owns the copyright.
"It's blatantly untrue [that Warner own the copyright]," Matthewson posted on his Facebook page. "I have attempted to dispute this case utilizing the dispute form that they provide, but it crashes every time I submit it, which I have tried around 25 times over the past several days. I have sent several emails to MySpace drawing attention to both their faulty dispute form and the fact that this is an incorrect assessment of copyright infringement as KEN Mode owns all copyrights to its songs and recordings."
Then, as if the mistaken copyright infringement wasn't bad enough, on Thursday night (November 19) MySpace removed a blog posting by Matthewson regarding the dispute.
"Thus far all communications have been ignored, and the last straw being the deleting of my last blog post," posted Matthewson. "I would just like to bring this to the attention of everyone out there that Warner Music Group is attempting to keep independent artists from being able to distribute and sell their music, and MySpace is facilitating this, the latest example being blatant censorship of its members. MySpace is checking up on us enough to delete my blog posts, but can't follow up on my copyright dispute. Thanks MySpace."
Matthewson has also tried to contact Warner Music Group directly, but has not had much luck getting through their web of bureaucracy.
KEN Mode are currently recording a new album and are shopping around for a record deal. Heavy music fans will likely remember them from the 2006 Exclaim! Aggressive Tendencies cross-Canada tour with Pelican and Daughters.
Submitted by: admin | Mon November 23, 09 9:09AM