So you want an example of why copyright doesn't do shit for real-life artists who aren't already fucking rich?
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So you want an example of why copyright doesn't do shit for real-life artists who aren't already fucking rich?
One of my friends got their music sampled by Timbaland. Those of you who know anything about Timbaland are probably saying "oh for fuck's sake" right about now. For those who know nothing: he does this shit A LOT. And a LOT of artists use Timbaland for production because he's famous. They couldn't give a rat's ass what he does to smaller artists, because as it turns out, once you're at a point of being sufficiently successful, you usually just stop giving a fuck. Especially in pop music and rap/hip hop.
The resulting song got used in a big musician's album. I don't wanna doxx them and they want to be private, and disclosing what would expose them. So, suffice it to say: it was a successful album.
Anyway, she sued.
They settled for $12,000. Which the IRS wanted money afterwards. They took home about $7.5k or so. Oh and the lawyer wanted a cut too. I don't remember how much they got, but it wasn't anything remotely life-changing.
They used this money to buy a used car. A very shitty used car.
Meanwhile: he made millions off the song upfront for his work.
That wasn't punishment or a deterrent, that was an accounting rounding error.
Timbaland still routinely does this, by the way, and most artists actually don't even bother fighting back, they put him on blast on social media and then nothing happens, because that's about all they can do.
That's how copyright works in the real world.
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So you want an example of why copyright doesn't do shit for real-life artists who aren't already fucking rich?
One of my friends got their music sampled by Timbaland. Those of you who know anything about Timbaland are probably saying "oh for fuck's sake" right about now. For those who know nothing: he does this shit A LOT. And a LOT of artists use Timbaland for production because he's famous. They couldn't give a rat's ass what he does to smaller artists, because as it turns out, once you're at a point of being sufficiently successful, you usually just stop giving a fuck. Especially in pop music and rap/hip hop.
The resulting song got used in a big musician's album. I don't wanna doxx them and they want to be private, and disclosing what would expose them. So, suffice it to say: it was a successful album.
Anyway, she sued.
They settled for $12,000. Which the IRS wanted money afterwards. They took home about $7.5k or so. Oh and the lawyer wanted a cut too. I don't remember how much they got, but it wasn't anything remotely life-changing.
They used this money to buy a used car. A very shitty used car.
Meanwhile: he made millions off the song upfront for his work.
That wasn't punishment or a deterrent, that was an accounting rounding error.
Timbaland still routinely does this, by the way, and most artists actually don't even bother fighting back, they put him on blast on social media and then nothing happens, because that's about all they can do.
That's how copyright works in the real world.
I'm not saying btw "don't listen to music where Timbaland produced the track" because honestly? You'd avoid a lot of music. And he's far from the only producer caught doing this.
But this is just how real-life copyright works. Big artists make money. Little artists are left fighting for scraps.
The system benefits capital. It does not benefit small people.
My friend who got ripped off? She also turned against copyright after this happened to her, after realising copyright is made to serve capital.
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I'm not saying btw "don't listen to music where Timbaland produced the track" because honestly? You'd avoid a lot of music. And he's far from the only producer caught doing this.
But this is just how real-life copyright works. Big artists make money. Little artists are left fighting for scraps.
The system benefits capital. It does not benefit small people.
My friend who got ripped off? She also turned against copyright after this happened to her, after realising copyright is made to serve capital.
And if you need any kind of explanation as to why copyright won't kill AI, this is it.
The person who has the most money wins litigation, overwhelmingly.
Real copyright claims in the real world mean that the infringer calculates how much they can settle for and still make a shitload of money, and they settle.
And if you refuse the settlement, you risk mounting legal fees, the infringer dragging their feet (they can drag infringement cases out for many years), making litigation very expensive, and at the end of it all, you risk losing the case because a jury who was persuaded by their much better lawyer with way more rizz said it was fair use and now you're on the hook for possibly hundreds of thousands of even millions in legal costs.
Yeah, that's how most jury cases get won by the way: whatever side has the best lawyer. Welcome to American litigation.
It's even harder to sue in places like Europe, because copyright is even more structurally stacked.
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So you want an example of why copyright doesn't do shit for real-life artists who aren't already fucking rich?
One of my friends got their music sampled by Timbaland. Those of you who know anything about Timbaland are probably saying "oh for fuck's sake" right about now. For those who know nothing: he does this shit A LOT. And a LOT of artists use Timbaland for production because he's famous. They couldn't give a rat's ass what he does to smaller artists, because as it turns out, once you're at a point of being sufficiently successful, you usually just stop giving a fuck. Especially in pop music and rap/hip hop.
The resulting song got used in a big musician's album. I don't wanna doxx them and they want to be private, and disclosing what would expose them. So, suffice it to say: it was a successful album.
Anyway, she sued.
They settled for $12,000. Which the IRS wanted money afterwards. They took home about $7.5k or so. Oh and the lawyer wanted a cut too. I don't remember how much they got, but it wasn't anything remotely life-changing.
They used this money to buy a used car. A very shitty used car.
Meanwhile: he made millions off the song upfront for his work.
That wasn't punishment or a deterrent, that was an accounting rounding error.
Timbaland still routinely does this, by the way, and most artists actually don't even bother fighting back, they put him on blast on social media and then nothing happens, because that's about all they can do.
That's how copyright works in the real world.
@Elizafox should have just got YouTube to pull the song down with a DMCA request. What's that you say? Only megacorps can do that? Oh. Sounds like everything is working as intended. 🫠
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