Billy Bragg brews up a storm about sale of Bebo

To most readers, Bebo is a social networking site hugely popular among Irish teens and school-goers.

To musician and activist Billy Bragg, however, Bebo is a company who've become successful by using the creative blood, sweat and tears of musicians such as him to attract new members and advertisers.

Bragg's attack on Bebo comes on the back of the sale of the site to AOL for $850 million.

Writing in the New York Times this week, Bragg wondered if some of this cash should be paid to acts whose music is streamed on the site.

"The musicians who posted their work on Bebo are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise," argued Bragg. "Their investment is the content provided for free while the site had no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend."

It's not Bragg's first run in with a social networking site. He previously took the News Corporation- owned MySpace to task over a potential rights-grab clause in its terms and conditions, gaining a huge amount of positive PR for his stance.

This time, though, the daggers were out for Bragg from the get-go. Internet business blog TechCrunch called his move a "crazy-stupid idea" and said Bragg "ignored the fact that music was uploaded to the site by artists themselves, with full knowledge that they would not receive payments of any kind (except free marketing, of course, and access to Bebo's tens of millions of music-loving users)".

Glenn Peoples from music industry blog Coolfer was a little more reasonable, pointing out that Bragg's protestations came too late.

"Artists of all stripes should create the mechanisms and institutions that can negotiate with companies such as Bebo before they are acquired for millions, if not billions. Asking for money after the fact will get you nowhere."

Of course, no one involved has as yet suggestd a way to calculate the value of a song streamed on Bebo or MySpace to everyone's satisfaction.

Legal eagles get busy

It has been a bonanza week for music business legal eagles in the US.

First came the news that Smashing Pumpkins are taking former label Virgin to court.

The reason for Billy Corgan and co's breach-of- contract suit? A claim that Virgin has endangered the band's reputation by involving them in sales promotions with Amazon and Pepsi.

Corgan described it as "a frustrating situation" for the band "to be treated so poorly by a label where we had so much success".

The other music business plaintiffs this week are US performing rights body ASCAP, who have sent in the heavies to tackle 29 clubs and venues who are playing music in public without a licence.

The body claims "it reached out to the owners of the establishments repeatedly over a significant period of time before taking legal action".

A Braziliant night out

From the good news department: hip-hop and samba night Brasilintime, which has its roots in the documentary of the same name, is back in Ireland in May.

Run by Limerick-born photographer, director and DJ Brian "B+" Cross, the line-up stars Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, most recently in action with The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

Allen will appear with Brazilian drummers Ivan Conti (Azymuth) and Joao Paryhba (Trio Mocoyo) plus the mighty Madlib (Beat Konducta/ Quasimoto), J-Rocc (The Beat Junkies) and Nuts.

The dates are Dublin's Tivoli on May 2nd and Limerick's Trinity Rooms on May 4th.