Artists struggle to sell any music at all in China. That we understand and those of us in the music industry here work within those parameters. On the other hand, companies generally play by the rules and compensate artists when they use their work. Contrary to this assumption, a story has surfaced online that runs as follows:
- Tudou (the online video company) uses a track from Maybe Mars band Carsick Cars in a promotional video, sponsored by HP.
- Friend of the label sees aforementioned video in a Shanghai taxi. Bear in mind that this is a proper commercial for both Tudou and HP.
- Maybe Mars, a little miffed, contact Tudou on behalf of their copyrighted material and their band
- After 3 weeks of asking for not much more than an apology and a promise to consult the copyright holder in the future, Tudou basically tell Maybe Mars to “get bent” and “sue us”
[full story in Chinese HERE]
We are paraphrasing, of course, but the sentiment remains the same. According to Maybe Mars, Tudou were incredibly rude, unapologetic and eventually claimed “we are not music people and we can’t tell if this song is actually one of Carsick Cars or not”.
Not good behavior from an online video sharing service that claims to protect the rights of the creator. Boo hiss.
(we saw the video 5 minutes ago, but it has already been taken down)