Dutch copyright watchdog BREIN is being sued by a musician for more than $1 million after allegedly using his song in copyright warnings on DVDs without explicit permission. Oh my.
Musician Melchior Rietveldt was asked by BREIN to compose the song for a local film festival, but the group went on to use the song on "tens of millions" of Dutch DVDs. Rietveldt had only allowed them use of the song for the festival, and discovered they used it on DVDs only when he purchased a Harry Potter movie.
Rietveldt's financial advisor estimates the value of the missing revenue to be around $1.3 million. It's an unfortunate situation for BREIN, but the case doesn't stop there for Rietveldt.
And they're using it for a commercial endeavor. Too many of the people being targeted and busted as "pirates" are simply sharing their collections. I hope Rietveldt wins a fortune in the suit.
(via Ashby)