There are a few recurring red herrings in the coverage about the Spotify lawsuits that I thought we could examine.

1.  Sorry We’re Not English:  Hooray Henry! Spotify is a European company, so it should come as no surprise that one of the most common red herrings we hear is that there’s something wrong with the US because we don’t do things the way the rest of the world does and that makes it inconvenient for Spotify.  So that’s our fault, you see.  And we might agree if it weren’t for the nondisclosure agreements that prevent some of the European societies from even telling their songwriter members what the rates are.  (See Jonathan David Neal’s groundbreaking guest post of his interview with Andrew Shaw from the PRS about their YouTube deal).

While there may be other aspects to the UK and European system of licensing that commend themselves…