Sony Music Entertainment’s offices in Mexico were raided by police after an artist formerly with the label alleged copyright infringement. According to Alejandro Fernandez, his contract with Sony was up, yet they were going to release his songs as if they had the rights to them. Sony’s claim is that they did in fact have the rights, and that Mr. Fernandez did not understand the terms of his contract.
Unfortunately for all of the RIAA haters out there (of which Sony is a big part), Sony could be correct in its claim that they had the rights to press these CDs, and to market them at that. It’s possible that Mr. Fernandez’s contract was still in effect when he recorded the songs, which, depending on how the contract is worded, could give Sony the distribution rights. Of course, the Mexican police thought the infringement claims were valid enough that they went ahead and performed the raid.
The real irony in Sony’s alleged infringement is that this is the kind of case that the American copyright laws are meant to be used against. Were Sony to not have the rights, then this would be an instance of something where Sony, a pretty big and powerful company, was attempting to profit from the work of another. That stands in stark contrast to the copyright cases that have gone on in the United States, in which the users in question not only did not act to gain monetarily, but were never proven to cause damage to the record labels. Whereas in a case like this, it’s very clear that Sony would have gone on to make a profit. After all, Mr. Fernandez would have made less money later on were he to release the CDs with Sony’s copies already on the market.
