Vivendi sues Murdoch’s MySpace
p2pnet.net News:- Big Four Organized Music member Vivendi Universal is suing Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace.com for, you guessed, it, copyright infringement, calling the site a “vast virtual warehouse” of pirated works.
It’s already suing Grouper, owned by one of its Big Four colleagues, Sony, as well as Bolt, another video site.
And it’s all about the online advertising dollar – your advertising dollar.
Vivendi claims “no intellectual property is safe” from the alleged copyright infringement, even unreleased albums, continues The Los Angeles Times.
Vivendi’s Universal Music Group has been in the rampage since it reached an agreement to license its songs and music videos to Google’s YouTube and is now, “seeking damages of $150,000 for each unauthorized music video or song posted on MySpace, alleged that MySpace not only is aware of the infringement but also makes money selling advertising to the millions of users attracted by the lure of free access to copyrighted works,” says the story.
The suit also names MySpace parent the News Corporation, says The New York Times, and it, “comes as the recording industry contends with how to exploit its copyrighted material online. The issue has taken on more importance as services built around user-generated content become popular and generate advertising revenue.”
MySpace said in a statement yesterday that it complied with the requirements of federal law, says the story.
“The company said it had kept Universal, a unit of Vivendi, ‘closely apprised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators’ rights, and it’s unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation’.”
MySpace said separately it has a new tool to let copyright owners flag videos posted without permission and that it would take down any videos thus identified, states the NYT, adding:
“In a statement yesterday, Universal said its 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’.”
As we’ve noted before: there’s no honour among thieves.
Also See:
suing Grouper – Sony video clips for Grouper, November 10, 2006
The Los Angeles Times – MySpace is sued by Universal Music, November 18, 2006
The New York Times – Universal Music Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement, November 18, 2006
November 19th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
fox owns or subsidizes myspace right? i guess youtube must be safe… for some reason
November 20th, 2006 at 6:08 am
well ain’t that some shit myspace doesn’t charge for a damn thing
November 21st, 2006 at 9:34 am
it is hard to see how Myspace wont just go the way of all other p2p operations. No new principles of law to define here. They run a web operation that induces infringing behaviour.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:35 pm
“They run a web operation that induces infringing behaviour.”
this is totall cartel BS.
Under the definition of the organised music must Microsoft stop operating!
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/network/p2p/default.mspx