{"id":101795,"date":"2024-11-06T10:08:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T10:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?p=101795"},"modified":"2024-11-06T10:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T10:08:22","slug":"believe-umg-lawsuit-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/believe-umg-lawsuit-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Believe and TuneCore respond to allegations of \u2018industrial-scale copyright infringement\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UMG is suing Believe and TuneCore for $500 million in a major copyright infringement lawsuit.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On November 4th, a lawsuit was filed by Universal Music Group,\u00a0ABCKO Music & Records, and\u00a0Concord Music Group (collectively UMG) against Believe and TuneCore (collectively Believe). The reason? Allegations of “industrial-scale copyright infringement”, which could potentially cost Believe $500 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe, a French music company, and its subsidiary TuneCore, are accused of knowingly enabling copyright infringement on a massive scale. According to the original complaint<\/a>, Believe facilitates a huge number of bad actors to distribute fraudulent music illegally, with their client list being “overrun with fraudulent \u201cartists\u201d and pirate record labels.\u201d These fraudulent tracks are uploaded to streaming services under popular artist names that have been deliberately tweaked so as to trick listeners into accidentally streaming these versions. Examples include tracks by \u00a0\u201cKendrik Laamar\u201d (a reference to Kendrick Lamar); \u201cArriana Gramde\u201d\u00a0 (a reference to Ariana Grande);\u00a0 \u201cJutin Biber\u201d (a reference to Justin Bieber); and\u00a0 \u201cLlady Gaga\u201d (a reference to Lady Gaga).\u201d These songs often are slightly sped up, slowed down, or remixed versions of the originals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBelieve is a company built on industrial-scale copyright infringement,\u201d stated a spokesperson from UMG, highlighting that this issue not only affects artists major labels, but independent labels as well. UMG also accused Believe of diverting royalty payments that should have gone to plaintiffs, including revenue from streams, downloads and ad-revenue generated by use of works in user-generated content (UGC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is in reference to Believe’s alleged attempts to cheat YouTube’s content ID system<\/a>, trying to claim ownership of copyrights and monetise them on the platform. UMG claims that, even after conceding that they did not own copyrights they were trying to claim, Believe has often continued to distribute and purport to license the exact same tracks to other digital music services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint filed on November 4th claims that Believe has made very little effort to hide its illegal actions. It states that the company has failed to do the minimum to weed out infringing material, and has instead chosen to \u201c[turn] a blind eye to the fact that its music catalog was rife with\u00a0 copyright infringing sound recordings.\u201d A damning statement is included in the complaint:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom its inception, Believe recognized that it lacked the resources, creative talent and business acumen necessary to sign and develop top-level artists and create a catalog that could compete fairly with Plaintiffs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK – Case No.: 24-cv-8406<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday (November 5th), Believe released an official statement in response<\/a> to these serious allegations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBelieve and TuneCore do not comment on pending litigation. As companies that work with artists and labels around the world, we take the respect of copyright very seriously. We strongly refute these claims, and the statements made by Universal Music Group and will fight them,\u201d a spokesperson stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have developed robust tools and processes to tackle this\u00a0industry-wide\u00a0challenge, working collaboratively with partners and peers and will continue to do so,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe have been at the forefront of the digital music ecosystem for nearly 20 years, supporting the development of independent artists and labels, and have been awarded Tier 1 status and included in the Preferred Partner Program across all music stores.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this lawsuit filing, UMG is seeking damages of $500m, so it’s no wonder that Believe strongly refutes these allegations. However, as the accused music company points out, this is pending litigation, meaning the next steps will be for the company to prepare its defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been no further statements by UMG, ABCKO, or Concord Music Group at the time of writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UMG is suing Believe and TuneCore for $500 million in a major copyright infringement lawsuit. On November 4th, a lawsuit was filed by Universal Music Group,\u00a0ABCKO Music & Records, and\u00a0Concord Music Group (collectively UMG) against Believe and TuneCore (collectively Believe). The reason? Allegations of “industrial-scale copyright infringement”, which could potentially cost Believe $500 million. Believe, a French music company, and its subsidiary TuneCore, are accused of knowingly enabling copyright infringement on a massive scale. According to the original complaint, Believe facilitates a huge number of bad actors to distribute fraudulent music illegally, with their client list being “overrun with fraudulent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":101797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11109],"tags":[30375,2044],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBelieve and TuneCore respond to allegations of \u2018industrial-scale copyright infringement\u2019 - RouteNote Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Believe has responded to UMG's accusations of mass scale copyright infringement. 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