RIAA and IFPI ask Google to pull free In Rainbows downloads

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have sent Google takedown notices over blogs on its Blogger service that offer In Rainbows as a free download. The notices ask Google to shut the accounts and to filter the album out of its search results.

The RIAA's letter says the recordings belong to one of its member companies and were never authorised for that use. Radiohead released the download in October 2007 and let buyers pay what they wanted, an offer that closed on 10 December. The CD and vinyl followed through labels: XL outside the US on 31 December 2007, and TBD in America a day later.

A Radiohead representative declined to comment to TorrentFreak, which reported the notices. Radiohead's members were among the musicians who set up the Featured Artists Coalition in 2008, a lobby for artists' control of their own work, and TorrentFreak recalls the founders' argument that going after fans will not fix the music industry.

TorrentFreak doubts the notices hold up, since what the labels own is the physical release, not the band's download.