Pirated Artist Orders Police Raid on Sony Music Office
Written by Ernesto on September 07, 2009A Sony Music office in Mexico has been raided after the label refused to hand over the recordings of one of Latin America’s biggest artists, Alejandro Fernández. Police took over 6,000 CDs that Sony refused to return, even though Fernández’ contract with the label had ended.
Alejandro Fernández or “El Potrillo” is one of Latin America’s most successful singers. He has produced a few dozen hits and won two Latin Grammy’s.
Fernández had a deal with Sony Music to record seven albums. The deal ended last year after which he signed with Universal Music, but that didn’t stop Sony from using his music, photos and videos – quite the contrary.
Even without a contract, Sony decided to release a new album with previously unreleased Fernández material without the singer’s permission. Upset by this move, Fernández’s lawyer sent a cease and desist to the label, but heard nothing.
As a result of Sony’s inaction Fernández’s lawyer saw no other option than to call in the police. To prevent more damage from the ‘pirating’ label, Mexico City Police raided the label’s office and collected over 6,000 of the new CDs, master recording and the album art.
“Sony assumed that they could take tracks that weren’t part of previous albums and release them as an eighth album, as if it were new material, over which they had rights,” Jose Luis Caballero, Fernández’s lawyer said. “It’s perfectly clear that the company’s contract is limited to seven albums.”
Sony Music denies the allegations and insists they are authorized to use the recordings even though Fernández’s contract has ended. They hope that the Mexican court will be on their side.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: IFPI Prepares IPRED Complaints Against File-Sharers
127 Responses
“They hope that the Mexican court will be on their side.” – Yeah, just like we know them…
Put those damn Sony pirates into the brigg and throw the key away.
This article made me laugh. I’ve always hated Sony.
Now you know were the real pirates are.
Hey you wouldn’t steal a cd, won’t you?
No, thousands of it.
200,000 $ per album times 6000
12 billion SONY should be fined
and as that goes to the govt aka the people
it should about pay back the thefts they done alllll along
Its all about the money for them, isn’t it? Disgusting.
English isn’t your first language, is it?
the sad thing for use filesharers is that if Sony takes someone to court for filesharing/ripping cd’s/etc., this case here wouldn’t be allowed to be talked about in court, cause according to the legal system, it has nothing to do with the case in question.
(snivel) its so beautiful.
suck on it sony.
Tee hee hee!
Can’t wait till the recording industries lose their power and are forced to live on the street like dogs. When that day comes I’m going to spit in all their faces one by one. Especially Tim Kuik (BREIN), I’ll personally sh!t on him.
copyright infringement by the record labels.. mhmm
OWNED!
lets hope the courts are consistent and fine them a couple thousand bux per pirated song, it would put sony out of business.
keep the piratebay alive so sign up at the http://www.theghostbay.org/
I hope that Sony are punished under the full extent of the law. Hypocrites.
hey faggot, stop advertising your stupid site.
Looks like a piece of crap to me.
@ghostbay and anyone else trying to promote their shithole sites.
…is good for the gander.
Ya it’s funny that they aren’t even pirating 10-30 songs neither but 6000 cds w/o permission (6000 X 12 songs/cd = 72,000 songs).
Ya funny if they had to pay BILLIONS (thousands of millions) in “damages” (lmao) for this.
In all seriousness tho, giving the same cut/amount as previous sales /w this artist seems fair (since already sold?).
…and for user infringements, 1.00 dollar per song also seems fair. Itunes is only 1 dollar per song so damages more then that doesn’t fit.
…course personally I believe the song COPIED w/o permissions IS a NEW SONG, even if the exact same. The recording is the same but the file is a new file. Copy a file in Windows and it says file and then copy of file so soon as it says “copy of” it’s no longer the original (imho).
Get yer band running concerts. Unauthorized copying might not be fair but neither is making 1 cd and pumping out MILLIONS of copies w/o any additional work. Most workers don’t get such a luxury.
“ya boss, I’ll hit this button and the robot will do my work for me”
to which the employer says “here’s yer pink slip, the robot just replaced yer job”.
.02
Lol..the irony is intense.
MMMWWWWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!
Breath
MMMWWWWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!
Breath
MMMWWWWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!
Fantastic news!
So, let’s make their bill, will we?
6000 albums, with – let’s guess – 15 tracks per album.
6000 cds x 15 tracks x $150.000 a track = a $13.500.000.000 fine
And that’s only at the rate for ordinary people who happen to do some filesharing.
Counting Sony’s organized intentional commercial exploitation and non-plausible deniability it can even be seen as pretty weak.
money, money, money…
:P
Which label will bribe the judges more to win that court case is the real question.
Sadly, they probably won’t have to pay damages.
‘We hope the mexican court will side with us’
is code for
‘We’re going to give the judge, jury, and investigators shitloads of money’
I wonder why the anti-pirates never post in articles like these……
“You wouldn’t steal a CD!”….
You pirates need to stop stealing!
You’re hurting the artists!
I swear!
@27: “reasoned neo” – so is the riaa.
What exactly did he expect when he signed with the Sony devil? What they did was normal Sony behaviour.
nice news guys
now how about mandates on these bastards. how having their homes ransacked, 13 months in jail and out on license for 10 years.
make their families feel what they have done to others.
and all in the name of
IMAGINARY PROPERTY
Sony probably do have the rights for the album, concealed in some mumbo jumbo legal drivel in the contract that the artist doesn’t understand.
Sony “hey sign this we make you very rich”
Artist “sure man but i should read the small print?”
Sony “FREE MONEY shut up and sign”
well in mexico is a little different than the rest of the world, the one that gives the biggest gift to the authorities becomes the winner of the case
At the very least they should get the same “granted” to Joel Tenenbaum, who hadn’t done it for money.
Where’s “Someguy”??
Will someone please show that idiot what rel pirates look like??
LoL
ROFL SONY OWND ROFL
ROFL SANDWICH ROFL
“Which label will bribe the judges more to win that court case is the real question.”
Definitively the correct answer. But, in case everything else fails, he can call his fans. You know, hes one of the biggest over Latin America.
@34: I believe he won’t show up… Better that way.
@36: Fans aren’t everything… Even so, he can use that.
#FROM_MYSELF: I in fact get a laugh. Though I won’t wish anything bad to the others… people get what they deserve.
The copyright laws from many countries establish that exchanging copyrighted material (without monetary gain) with others is perfectly normal and not a crime, as the case of Mexico.
copied from earlier post
“So, let’s make their bill, will we?
6000 albums, with – let’s guess – 15 tracks per album.
6000 cds x 15 tracks x $150.000 a track = a $13.500.000.000 fine”
you cant forget tm and infringment for using his name of the new album along with “fresh art” and violation of contractual obligations
i think they have messed with the wrong mexican
It’s about time Sony & lawyers got their asses handed to them.
Sony vs Universal.
It shall be the most epic lawsuit ever.
Vaya con dios
Commercial Copyright Infringement..
Theft \ Exploitation…
Fraud..
Sony is going to have a hard time bribing the Mexican Authorities over this one.. The Mexican Authorities are going to make alot of money over this and then comes the civil suit which im sure will be filed..
Hint: Should file in the US and Mexico.. Especially if it can be proven Sony US told the Mexico Sony to do so..
@27.. NeoTroll..
Yea sure buddy.. Sony cost this guy a cool million in revenue etc at least..
guys… this happens ALL the time…
The settlement should be the same kind of fines that one of us would get from these asshole riaa and big label so it should be in the tens if not hundreds of millions.
anything less will just show all of us more of what we already know about big rich assholes.
Stop Buying RIAA
Stop Buying Corporate Labels
Limit Your film buying and buy used
Sony should have the oants sued off them.
WOW…and we’re the thieves.
What can you say to that? They blatantly steal from a well known artist so that the police have to raid their offices!
Wow. Just let that sink in. Sony was raided because of piracy.
But hey, it was never about right and wrong for them was it? It’s about power, money, and luxury. Those are their ends and the means do not matter to them.
The hypocrisy is so palpable that it’s as if I feel almost exalted. I almost didn’t know what to write.
Will they be fined? Probably not, for the scales of justice have always tilted for those who stack money in them. And Sony has plenty of mafiaa lawyers and money to throw around.
It’s ok though, since I do not purchase products from them any longer. The reason for that is because of this site and other research I have done. I haven’t been to the movies in some time. I haven’t purchased media from corporations in some time. And now I must go and enjoy the warm feeling of vindication inside of me.
Thieving bastards! The company should be confiscated and searched for contraband.
Sony = Bony.
@18 (Good for the goose…):
Well, it’s 6,000 copies of the same CD, so they can only really be sued for the 12 tracks or so that are actually on each CD, which would amount to a petty $2.4 million. (Well, petty for Sony. Not petty for somebody like Jammie Thomas.)
So, are their actions actually inexcusable, or are we just a bunch of stinking hypocrites?
But yeah, if we are a bunch of stinking hypocrites, then so are they. If they really want people to “realize” that piracy is wrong, then they’ve got to stop doing stuff that is “wrong”. Otherwise, the misinformed public will stomp on them.
@49
So how does never leaving your mom’s basement feel?
#53- I was thinking the same thing.
You never go to movies?
You’re either incredibly righteously or incredibly lonely.
What Sony has done is portrayed the perfect example of *True* Piracy, profiting from someones work….
Most of us that share our files arent doing it to profit or steal, we are simply sharing what we have purchased with others, there is simply no “Hipocracy” of what we do…
Some individuals haven’t yet learned what the difference is, we should all thank Sony for enlightening everyone….
“Sony shall be hanged by the neck until quite dead” (NOT!. LoL…They will probable settle out of court with the artist for peanuts compared to what they could be charged, and perhaps manage to negotiate another contract with the artist in the process…Gotta luv it, LMAO)
Those greedy bastards…
@53 and 54
That’s a little below the belt, don’t you think? Man’s making a point and you gotta call him out on it.
Anyways, the current model of record labels is when an artist is signed, the copyright for the music belongs to the label, not the musician. That personally offends me as a musician. If I write a tune, I wanna own it. If I leave that label, everything I created under their name will belong to them until the copyright runs out.
The sooner that labels stop controlling their artists’ music and using it to their own ends, the better life will be for all of us.
SONY as pirates? How about cooler heads prevailing for the moment. If the contract says that SONY owns the output during those years, they are likely on solid ground. If it says “Seven albums and anything unused returns to the artist”, then Alejandro Fernandez has a beef. We’ll see.
I suspect the former and this is much ado about bullshit. And feel-good pirate journalism. lol
Ah, title made me laugh. Policed _raided_ Sony!
English isn’t your first language, is it?
@7
Does it matter if it is? At least he knows at least one foreign language. How about you, smart ass?
So,
TPB founders were personally convicted (not ‘reservella’) to a year in prison and paying a whole lot of money for only “assisting” infringment with the comparison of “holding someone’s coat while someone else commits a crime”. (Look out who you help out in Sweden, you never know what you’re assisting with).
Would the whole of SONY management for COMMERCIALLY distributing / reproducing and not reacting to ‘cease and desist’ letters have to pay billions now and go to PRISON for about a 100 years or so ? Management because you probably couldn’t blame the SONY factory worker… although he would be “assisting” in copyright infringement.
So if someone sells copied CD’s on the street having their own company they will get raided but not arrested because a corporation did it, not a person.
So every filesharer needs to become his own (empty) corporation and if you do go to court “you hope the court will be on your side” or you’ll declare your corporation bankrupt. As CEO you will almost never be accountable for anything as usual.
To the people who keep saying that they pirated 6000 albums:
The article clearly states that they pirated ONE. The police happened to confiscate 6000 CDs, many of which were most likely not pirated. Some were most likely duplicates of the pirated one, but nonetheless, there was only 1 pirated album.
@11
I wouldn’t pi$$ on him, even if he was on fire.
@ Reasoned Mind, you are such an obvious corporate shill, what your saying is that they probably have some bullshit line in some no longer valid contract that says Sony “owns” all his work while at Sony and they can use, and I quote, “his music, photos and videos” without his permission or some form of legal contract. Thats just simple PIRACY”! Period! But since Sony does have lawyers and lots of money and shills like you they will get away with it. Jammie gets popped for over a million dollars for “sharing”, like the old mix tapes we all used to make, not making a single dime out of it and Sony makes millions selling his work that they stole from him. Seems a little lopsided to me. But then I’m not a reasoned mind like you. Putz!
Sony will pay a small fine, and then nothing else will happen.
@LMFAO
I’m just saying we might wait until the true nature of the contract is revealed. At this juncture we just don’t know. Artists get advance checks written to them at the time of signing, and subsequent $upport in recording, pr, touring and so on. I don’t work in the industry and I don’t have a favored cause here. But if Fernandez signed the contract with an attourney working for him and then took the money as well as the subsequent support, it’s hard to see the justification for calling a signed agreement “simple piracy” in ANY business.
And you see an equivalence between making an analog mixtape in real time and Jammie saving herself 10’s of thousands of dollars in purchase prices while offering thousands of songs up for piracy in her Kaaza shared folder, do you? That’s the same act for you?
Really?
It’s true. The jury thought this through a lot more clearly than you have. You actually aren’t a Reasoned Mind at all.
way to go Alejandro…LOS CHINGASTE…
mexican charro 1 – maffia 0… and counting…
This will never see a courtroom.
Sony will settle out of court and $PAY$ Universal undisclosed sums of cake. Firm handshake and its over.
No crystal ball required.
Its obvious that Sony broke a deal. The cops raid a SONY office? The MEXICAN COPS? = Sony f*cked up.
If you ever come to the states, be sure to post your tour so I can give you a few bucks =)
wonder how my they will have to pay per song… I am sure they have already set the price :)
ba
Dont expect any money from us anytime soon, Sony.
My mothers basement? Please. My parents have been dead for some time. I’ve been living on my own and standing on my own two feet for nearly a decade and I’m in my late twenties.
The reason I don’t go to the movies is that I don’t want to feed hollywood execs more money. And also a lot of movies lately have been of questionable quality. When those execs, actors, directors and such are getting paid the sums of money they are then I expect high quality art not watered down cliches. So I wait for RedBox since it’s only a dollar to rent. And that’s only for something that I really want to see. Other than that I pick up a good book or rent classic cinema. Thanks for the bunk psychological analysis though.
@57 Agreed. A musician should own his or her own creations.
seriously……. big companies think they can do whatever ……… hope court orders them to pay big bucks
Gotta love these labels thinking that they are greater than god, calling customers thieves, when they are the ones doing all the stealing.
wow reasoned.. now the ‘probably’ excuse works?
What about when TPB made there claims.. oh noo.. ‘probably’ didnt cut it.. you considered them guilty no matter what.
Well guess what, its not going to work this for for you either, you just got owned.
Keep trying to make up excuses.. in the end, you lose.
65 (Reasoned TROLL) said:
“I’m just saying we might wait until the true nature of the contract is revealed.”
———
Are you imbecile?
The article explains very well as Sony violated the terms of contract with this artist, which is TRUE
PIRACY and THEFT. At least if you go to lie with conviction you should be less evident, and not seeming a stupid of high degree.
Also, it’s a fact that in the 70’s and 80’s decades a lot of music was shared via cassette tapes, in a
commercial scale by the millions and millions of persons around the world, and the record labels never
suffered by that (nor complained about that); in fact, the record labels did massives multi-billion
fortunes in those days; it’s (from any point of view) a concrete evidence of that the record labels have made (and make) massive fortunes independently if the people are sharing its material in a massive scale (commercial scale) or not, and that the claims about “supposed” losses for sharing via internet (or any other medium) in a massive scale are LIES, pure LIES, with the clear intention of demonizing BitTorrent through deceit.
It’s all about to control the internet and the information.
Which is your deal, ASSHOLE?
Demonizing internet file-sharing through deceits (instead of embracing it) for ruining the competence (BitTorrent) and thus, you (the record labels) steal the BitTorrent protocol from the people and using it as a business of prostitutes?
Me mexican, Me know more money more bribes wins!
What I mean is that the more popular and the one with the most money to spend on bribes will likely win. unfortunately or not he wont be able to sue sony for damages that dont really exist (like in usa). so if he wins he will likely just win a close to exact reimbursement of what he los from those sales and maybe send one of the guys in sony to jail… but that’s less likely.
Mexican law enforcement sucks ass… they wont even make the losing party pay for the lawyers expenses of the winning party.
Well then… id be happy about this news if it said something about the artist going down on sony and backing up torrenting or something :P
by the way… im really impressed that the police actually did something about it… but then again the lawyer probably bribed the commander or something..
@65 Reasoned Mind [aka some faggot]
“It’s perfectly clear that the company’s contract is limited to seven albums.”
It doesn’t get any clearer than this mate.
@ Resoned Mind
Quote – “And you see an equivalence between making an analog mixtape in real time and Jammie saving herself 10’s of thousands of dollars in purchase prices while offering thousands of songs up for piracy in her Kaaza shared folder, do you?”
Where do you you get these numbers? A simple google search comes up with 24 songs not “thousands” and at .99 cents per song on itunes thats about $23.76 American not “10’s of thousands of dollars”. What a tool!
How many albums beyond the 6000 taken in the raid do you think Sony sold and made ~$12-15 per CD not to mention the other media? Since you seem to be numerically challenged let me do the math for you.
6000 CD’s @ $15=$90,000
And thats only the ones from that one location.
And yes its exactly the same thing, since no one but the lawyers corporate fatcats make money. Not the artists and not the people that share or madk mixtapes. The interweb just makes it easier to share thats all.
“I don’t have a favored cause here.”
Have you ever said anything in favor of any of the artist/s? Any comment I have EVER seen you make is in favor of the industry. Don’t believe me, just go back and look at your own posts.
And as for as Jammie offering up songs for piracy, have you ever recorded and then later watched, a football game (either kind) or a TV show of any kind at all that is broadcast, with your friends or family? That makes you a pirate like the rest of us, because it clearly states in fine print somewhere in the credits not to make copies without written consent!
Shouldn’t the MAFIAA sue Tivo and every VCR and DVD recorder manufacurer for facilitating copyright infringement.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t Sony produce such devices?
I have friends in both the movie and music business and you know what? They ALL torrent and have no problem with it. I’d be willing to bet if your computer/s were checked there would be pirated material on it of some kind.
Personally I think Alejandro should upload the entire package to the web himself.
Same thing happened to Kool Keith, lol, guess the really talented ones are the ones that suffer at the hands of big music.
Pertaining to post number 80, for though reference; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOoNAXNsMRk
Did I use too many big words? WTF?
OK try this…
@ Reasoned Mind
Contract expired!
24 songs not thousands!
Yes, same as mix tape just easier on web!
I had many other points but it seems the mods can’t deal with more than a paragraph at a time!
Meh. xD
Sony will bribe and buy a judge to rule in their favour. HELLO????? It’s Mexico!!
And for the record, because of torrents there are now many artists that I would never have heard of, I now listen to and buy their albums (I like having the liner notes and such) and if they come near me in concert I will gladly pay to see them and maybe buy a T-shirt or something.
Theres your FREE PR, no overhead, more profit!
Maybe when I wake up in the morning the mods will have finished with my previous comment. Later peeps!
Reasoned Mind get a clue!
Guess I did use to many big words or just made too good of a point for the mods to post my earlier comments. Don’t want to confuse the sheeple!
Lol diarRIAA, your comment on the Mexican justice system can be applied to that of the US as well aye. Money walks, and everyone else is guilty due to lack of funds.
just another reason y 2never buy another CD again. the labels even steal from their own artists, gotta love it!!
official sony statement:
“aaaarrr!!”
@83 diarRIAA
Universal vs Sony
Who will put the most money towards bribing the judge?
They should also be forbidden to do any more business in the USA, since they are obviously a criminal organization.
Sony is above the law, they will WIN this.
@5
Damn I like your logic! :)
Wow, Sony is litereally stealing Music. Now they are some hardcore pirates. :D
Que Viva Mexico and I hope that the court are on AF side.
The big companies are always trying to F**k the artist and this was the right way to handle.
Sony boycott !!
More power to the world againts this type of act.
F**K SONY!!
lol
Copyright laws are very confusing. Maybe they should be redefined…
Where’s SomeGuy? Maybe he realized who the real thieves are.
you guys are horrible hypocrites, lol.
The majors pull this type of crap all the time, they’ve been sticking it to artists just as much as they do the public and they’ve been doing so for decades.
SomeGuy? neo? Reasoned? Yoo-hoo! Nothing to say?
Funny how these a$$holes are always absent from these type of stories. Much easier to troll about the big bad pirates.
Somebody who’s talented with music ought to make a PRO – SHARING song with a strong political message and catchy refrain…
Then release it all over Youtube and sharing sites until it becomes a number one hit…
That should give the struggle more exposure…
Smile Ernesto, or should I say Lennart Renkema. You are on BNR and Geenstijl.
sony FAIL loool
Hopefully Sony won’t get in trouble and win any lawsuit. Fuck him…
“Sony assumed that they could take tracks that weren’t part of previous albums and release them as an eighth album, as if it were new material”
I liked this one the most
You wouldn’t steal a car…
Would you, Sony?
In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz (schoolyard bully from The Simpsons):
HA HA!!!
Nice one. I can’t stand bullying multi national companies.
I hope the artist is correct about his contract, if so, I hope Sony get dicked in the courtroom. I would say $1 per song is fair, or say $10 per CD, however they don’t treat normal people like this, so I hope they get the maximum fine available in Mexico.
Or send in Team America and fine them $50,000 per infraction or whatever they can fine.
“Lol diarRIAA, your comment on the Mexican justice system can be applied to that of the US as well aye. Money walks, and everyone else is guilty due to lack of funds.”
Unless they have guns that are way shipper than lawyers!
“What exactly did he expect when he signed with the Sony devil? What they did was normal Sony behaviour.”
And this moron went out an signed with Vivendi Universal!
They are worst!
Vivendi is the corporation we should destroy first because it poses the greatest risk to our societies and our democracies.
does the three strikes law apply to this?
3 pirated cds and you loose your permission and get kicked out the business, how about that?
See, the record labels steal music, so it must be okay!
Royalty Fees – $600,000,000
Lawyer Fees – $10,000,000
Attempting to Close TPB – $30,000,000
Sony getting fucked over for piracy – Priceless.
I DO NOT understand all the mofo’s out there who are still buying sony tv’s, sony whatevers…..
Dumb mofo’s…. really. Stop buying their shit. Screw PS123 and PSP. You’re all at fault and the only reason that that bunch of corporate thieves still exist.
And you can bet your ass that those sony dudes are scared shitless when they come across me at night…
If I were Alejandro, I would not only pay the judge to win the case, but to also have the judge say that Sony offered him a bribe. Lmao, that would be good.
If they get away with it, I’ll be really surprised
In America, your considered innocent until proven guilty, but in Mexico its the other way around
Your considered guilty until proven innocent
But the Mexican Government also accepts bribes with open arms in most cases.
So we’ll see what happens.
If they actually get punished though, this will be a true win for pirates everywhere
fukin dago gypsy trash
http://www.sonymusic.com we owns your ass nigga
chock another one up to the technoNAZI’s Sony really just needs to go back to making VHS and casset players! They broke far fewer laws and were less aggrivating that way!
to me that’s just a proof to see who are the real theft in this world !!
THE BIG INDUSTRIES !!!
Sony sucks! alejandro fernandez too!
Sorry, I am an idiot. I absolutely love big labels =D.
To first go on a rampage all over the world, declaring war on those who “steal” music, one should be surprised that Sony would do something like this themselves….
Wonder why nobody is?
Sony should learn not to throw bricks when they live in a glasshouse.
@ Reasoned Mind
Wow. It’s Old World people like you that encourage me to vote Pirate Party. Keep up the good work!
he should sue them for copyright infringement for each track on each cd. would be justice in my eyes
He is famous? I’m from Latin America and never heard from this guy. He may be famous somewhere, but one of the biggest artists? Meh.
They said that they confiscated 6,397. Where exactly are the other 3 missing cds. I know for a fact that they manufacture in round figures which would be maybe 6,500 copies.
Maybe the same policemen kept the rest of them. You all should know that it was in MEXICO where it happened. Check out in the flea markets and swap meets and you’ll see them there.
Also I don’t think it is really piracy since some labels have a hidden clause in the contracts. I’m pretty sure the last one laughing will be Sony Music.
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