Smashing Pumpkins main man Billy Corgan has spoken to Billboard about his band's previously reported lawsuit against their former record label Virgin, saying he's sure the EMI division put his music forward for inclusion in a Pepsi download giveaway "full well knowing they did not have the right".
As previously reported, the Pumpkins are pissed off that their former label included their tracks in the high profile Pepsi Stuff download promotion which was designed to promote the US launch of Amazon's new MP3 download store, and which included music from three of the major record companies. Now free agents in label terms (though they most recently worked with Warner's Reprise), the band claim that their contract with Virgin regarding their back catalogue allow the major to sell their music but not to allow its use in branded promotions.
Speaking to the trade magazine from Australia, where he's on tour, Corgan admitted that he had been feuding with Virgin for years over his band's back catalogue, but said that giving away their music via Pepsi "crossed the Rubicon". He continued: "You're going to see more of this playing fast and loose with the rules, hoping they don't get caught. At face value, it's not a huge deal. But in terms of precedent, it is, because there will be much more of this coming".
Corgan claims that he has approached Virgin in the past about interesting back catalogue re-release projects but that the major showed little interest, though at the same time, he says, resisted any talk of him buying the rights to the old releases. He concluded: "We've made offers to buy it all. 'Look, you have no interest. Let us just buy it'. But they won't put a number on it. They've atrophied the catalogue down so low that they probably hope we'll crawl back and ask for cash".