Band Accuses EMI Of Illegal Practices

A download service accused of piracy and illegally offering music to the public? It’s a scenario that seems to have a depressingly familiar ring these days, doesn’t it?   But in astrange twist on the normal, it’s a band making the accusation – and it’s not against some fly-by-night outfit, but against one of the world’s largest record companies,EMI.   In a blog on the band’s web site, King Crimson founder Robert Fripp claimed that EMI had madeband tracks available for download, even though they didn’t own the download rights for the material.   "It is a little rich to punish punters for illegal downloads of EMI copyrightmaterial when EMI is itself guilty of copyright violation," Fripp wrote. “At the beginning of the license period, there was no such item as downloads; at the end of the period (December31st. 2003), downloads were clearly an important part of the future. The EMI license was not renewed because we were not willing to approve download rights – even though they aren’timportant!”     King Crimson is evidently now taking legal action against EMI.