PRS claims “many game titles which incorporate PRS members’ musical works are made available on Steam,” including “high profile series” such as Forza Horizon, FIFA/EA FC, and GTA.
This has “I’m throwing my lawsuit at everything and I hope it sticks” energy
To me it looks like, “It’s cheaper to sue this company rather than the individual companies even though we know we don’t really have a leg to stand on”.
Yeah, I’m not a lawyer, let alone a UK lawyer, but this seems insane. Why not sue Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for selling games that use their music, too, while they’re at it. The license to use their music is, presumably, licensed by the game creator. And, if it’s not, you go after them, not the storefront that’s selling the game, right?
If this case holds water, then didn’t that mean storefronts are liable for validating the licenses of all assets used by all products they stock? That would be insane. (“Prove you own the copyright to your packaging, design, layout, copy, music, textures, models, SFX, …”)
This doesn’t look meaningful at all. Why target valve and not the developers and publishers of these games? Were they not licensed appropriately such that they were compensated for their use? To my untrained eye this seems like they’re trying to double dip.
I did some research and apparently they’re sueing Valve because they think any platform where users can download something using their music should pay them, too. The publishers/devs are paying but Valve isn’t.
No idea how well that holds up in court.
Did music stores need licenses to sell CDs?
What does this mean for Apple Music or Spotify?
Valve doesn’t let you play the music, unless the publisher adds it and you purchase it separately as an OST (for which Valve is protected as that is the publisher’s actions).
If this succeeds then I declare anarchy. Rules are no longer a thing, anywhere. If corporations can just make up any bullshit they want then I’m going to start suing all the music industry associations for including their music in commercials which did NOT license my ears to receive it.
What does this mean for Apple Music or Spotify?
They do license the music
You’re conflating the streaming side vs the buying a track side.
They don’t license the samples that an artist might’ve licensed, but they “sell” them as part of the song. The same braindead logic from the lawsuit can be applied here.
PRS claims “many game titles which incorporate PRS members’ musical works are made available on Steam,” including “high profile series” such as Forza Horizon, FIFA/EA FC, and GTA.
So what is Rockstar, EA, etc doing producing games without a proper music license? Why is Valve being punished for selling something those game devs didn’t have rights to distribute?
What about cinemas playing movie trailers that feature music? They need special permission beyond the licensing agreements already in place or something?
How about the games sold on Amazon? Epic?
Disband the clown show bringing this to court. Embarrassing.
I’m pretty sure those games have licenses, this lawsuit is saying valve needs a separate license to distribute those games
Which… Is kinda fuckin bullshit?
Kinda really bullshit. This case states it’s not enough to get permission from the publisher. Now every digital store would need to get licenses for the assets of the content they’re selling, on top of a license for the final product.
Absurd.
And then they can sue the hosting company Valve uses for distributing the assets without a license, and the ISPs that transmit the assets without a license, and the speaker manufacturers for playing the assets without a license, and …
Don’t you dare hum a tune from you favorite game in public! That’s theft!
This doesn’t appear to be about games that don’t have the proper licenses though. They do, but the licenses don’t mention Steam and some chucklefuck thought that would be the key to making a ton of money.
It’s like suing Spotify because an artist correctly licensed a sample.
As always the US music industry is showing it is a massive embarrassment.
While your statement is true, PRS is UK.
I’ve only just realized this after thoroughly reading more articles. Embarrassing, but I stand by my statement. I’m starting to wonder if this is a universal greed.
The modern music industry is entirely built upon the idea of middlemen seeking rent from other people’s work. They have a long history of trying to screw over musicians and customers for a little extra cash flow; them going after distributors as well tracks with all the other greedy and self-defeating shit they’ve pulled over the years.
The PRS needs to pay the wanker down the street for the licence to act like such bellends.