Earlier this week, we reported on the shocking development at Century Media is in the process of suing illegal downloaders of Iced Earth's Dystopia and Lacuna Coil's Dark Adrenaline." We speculated that this decision was not to "scare illegal downloaders away" but to make a quick buck on the backs of (presumably) young kids who don't see the danger in what t hey are doing. But what did the bands think?
Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer posted a message in response to this lawsuit on Facebook, and SHOCKER, nobody even warned him and he does not support it. Here's the quote:
"It has come to my attention that Century Media is suing fans over illegal downloads of (among others) our latest album, 'Dystopia'. I felt it was important to clarify that we had no knowledge of this motion and were, sadly, not asked permission.
"We all know the music industry is changing. We have been adapting to this model by embracing legal streaming services such as Spotify and by bringing our music to places we have never played before by touring our proverbial asses off.
"As much as we respect that the labels are having a harder time selling music, we feel this is a misguided effort and want to make sure our fans know we would have not given our consent would we have been asked."
I've spoken to a number of people within the industry over the last few days about this lawsuit and they can't seem to wrap their head around why Century is doing this. What is there to gain, other than settlement money?
