Comment The real legal reason for this announcement (Score 5, Interesting) 84
It's recently come to light that UMG had a fire in 2008 that destroyed the original master tapes of many classic artists, which even includes Tom Petty from the list of artists in the summary. UMG is being sued for mishandling of those properties as well as being challenged over lack of payouts to artists. The original masters from Chuck Berry, Nirvana, Aretha Franklin, and many other important songs from other artists are now lost forever in a situation reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria. UMG is arguing that since there are derivative commercial copies in existence, that nothing of value was lost and so they shouldn't be held accountable. Publicly announcing the publishing of these "remastered" music videos is an attempt by UMG to demonstrate this position to cover themselves in court for their upcoming inevitable legal issues.
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