Photo Credit: Internet Archive
A growing number of musicians have signed a letter organized by Fight for the Future in a campaign demanding UMG and other music labels drop their lawsuit against the Internet Archive, the nonprofit online library best known for the Wayback Machine. Around 630 musicians, including Tegan & Sara, Open Mike Eagle, Amanda Palmer, and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, have signed the letter.
“Over 600 musicians are speaking out to demand that major labels drop a lawsuit aimed to destroy the Internet Archive — and for their industry to take concrete actions to realign their actions with the interests of working artists,” explains the Save the Archive website. “It’s time for the music industry to support the artistic legacies and futures of working musicians — not shareholder profits.”
“We, the undersigned musicians, wholeheartedly oppose major record labels’ unjust lawsuit targeting the Internet Archive, a crucial nonprofit cultural institution. We don’t believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in our name. The biggest players of our industry clearly need better ideas for supporting us, the artists, and in this letter we are offering them,” the letter begins.
“By 2031, music industry revenues will exceed 100 billion dollars, yet the average musician is struggling to survive. We’re priced out of touring by Live Nation’s abusive monopolies, and screwed over on royalties as big labels profit from Spotify’s unfair streaming revenue model,” they explain.
“Music is demonetized and censored by DSPs, sued off the Internet Archive by major labels, and physical archives have gone up in flames because of corporate profiteering. It’s no surprise that mental health is a crisis among musicians — we’re sick with worry, wondering if anything will be left of our life’s work.”
“The music industry is not struggling anymore. Only musicians are,” they continue. “We demand a course-correction now, focused on the legacies and futures of working musicians. We call on all record labels, streaming platforms, ticketing outlets, and venues to immediately align [with our] goals.”
Should the labels be successful in their lawsuit, the Internet Archive could be forced to pay up to $621 million in damages for the music streamed through the archive since 2006. The Internet Archive recently lost its appeal in an ongoing lawsuit with book publishers over ebook lending. According to the Internet Archive, its digital book library can lend out ebooks under fair use, but several judges have ruled otherwise.
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