Billy Bragg, often referred to by the British press as “the big-nosed bard of Barking,” has pulled all of his music from his official MySpace page, citing statements in the company’s contract which allow News International – the Rupert Murdoch company that owns MySpace – the right to reuse content without any payment to the artist.
“The real problem,” says Billy, “is the fact that they can sub-license it to any company they want and keep the royalities themselves without paying the artist a penny. It also doesn’t stipulate that they can use it for non-commercial use only, which is what I’d want to see in that clause. The clause is basically far to open for abuse and, thus, I’m very wary.”
Good on you, Billy…though what’s most surprising about this story is that no-one else has ever noticed this information before. Guess that shows how closely people read the fine print on MySpace…
