Universal Music sues MySpace
Universal sues MySpace, accuses it of facilitating copyright infringement.
The world's largest music company Universal Music is up in arms against the most famous social networking site MySpace. The Universal Music Group a unit of Paris-based Vivendi SA, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit accusing MySpace of allowing its users to upload, download songs and videos. The lawsuit also names MySpace's corporate parent, the News Corporation which is owned my media giant Ruport Murdoch. Last year in September. Murdoch's News Corporation bought MySpace for $580 million. Universal suggested that it is less about privacy and more about protecting the rights artist’s rights. The company also clarified they have intentions of engaging into a real court fight, but pressing MySpace into a lucrative licensing deal.
Friday, November 17 saw Universal Music Group suing MySpace over copyright infringement. The music company is alleging that the popular social networking site is allowing its users to freely share (upload and download) songs and videos. The lawsuit filed at a District Court in Los Angeles describes MySpace as a "vast virtual warehouse" of pirated works. The music company claims that some of the best selling artists like Mariah Carey, Diana Krall and U2 are available for free downloads on MySpace. The company also alleged that no intellectual property is safe as even the unreleased album of Jay-z "Kingdom Come" is available on MySpace. The Santa Monica based Universal is seeking $150,000 as damages for each unauthorized music video or song posted on MySpace. The company is alleging that not only is MySpace aware of the illegal haring of music videos and songs but also generates a lot of money by selling advertising to millions of users who attracted by the lure of free access to copyrighted works.
In the past Universal has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Grouper Networks Inc. and Bolt Inc. for allowing users to share music videos from popular artists.
Earlier this year, Universal's head honcho Doug Morris, publicly zeroed on YouTube and MySpace has copyright infringers. Universal was hopeful of a claiming a stake in YouTube, before it was gobbled up by Google for $1.65 billion. The licensing talks with MySpace have also been slowed down, but with this lawsuit give Universal a fair
edge to hold on to those licensing talks. Most likely, Universal wants a share in the lucrative $900-million advertising deal MySpace struck with Google, as the social networking site sells advertising tailored to the content of songs, music videos and artist pages.
In a statement Universal said "Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn't be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators. Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace."
The copyright infringement lawsuit comes at a time when MySpace had announced a new tool to flag copyrighted and unauthorized content, making it easier and faster content holders to remove it from the site. In its defense MySpace said “We provide users with tools to share their own work — we do not induce, encourage, or condone copyright violation in any way. We have been keeping [Universal Music] closely apprised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators' rights. It's unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation."
But industry analysts believe the lawsuit complicates matters for Universal, as one of the company's own label Interscope Records has entered a deal with MySpace to promote its artists by distributing music. Recently Interscope released a CD from MySpace act, the Hollywood rap-rock artist Mickey Avalon. Courtney Holt, Interscope Records'
head of new media praised the role of MySpace in launching new releases from the Black Eyed Peas, Nine Inch Nails, Beck and Queens of the Stone Age.
There are tens of millions of MySpace pages allowing illegal sharing of music and videos. News Corporation does not want to responsible for customers’ infringing behavior, especially at a time when News Corp is still trying to figure out how to have MySpace actually make them some money instead of it costing them money. The lawsuit just might also be a testing lab for suing bigger companies like YouTube and its parents company Google.
|
