Swizz Beatz is reportedly getting his celebrity friends in hot water with their music label over their participation in a promo video for his website Mega-Upload. Wow, who knew Swizz was involved with Mega-Upload???
Apparently, Swizzy is the CEO of the file sharing site that allows people to easily share large media files. The catch is, lots of people use Mega-Upload to share stolen music and the music industry has been fighting against file sharing, accusing the services Mega-Upload offers of supporting piracy.
The NY Post’s Page Six is reporting that Swizzy convinced Diddy, Kanye West, and Will.i.am into promoting Mega-Upload by appearing in a “Mega Song” video promoting the site’s file sharing capabilities. Universal Music Group didn’t like that too much, and they issued a “take-down notice” to YouTube, saying the artists’ performances were unauthorized.
Check out the “Mega Upload” video below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc&w=560&h=315]
Mega-Upload fired back with a lawsuit against Universal to stop it from blocking distribution of the video. A Mega rep told Page Six: “We have never received any word that any artist has [individually] filed a take-down . . . [we have] legally binding agreements with the performers that appear in the video . . . They promised that they had the rights to enter into that agreement and it’s not interfering with any third-party rights.”’
If Diddy, Kanye and Will.I.Am participated in the video of there own free will, does the label have the right to sue Mega-Upload for using their likeness? The Mega-Upload song is cool too, very catchy!
Source: NY Post