$130 million Napster settlement
p2pnet news Music:- Music publishing affiliates of the Harry Fox Agency have settled a class action against Bertelsmann AG over its investment in the Napster, says Billboard.
This was the original Napster P2P file sharing application which started the online music revolution, not the sickly corporate version which is currently struggling for survival.
Bertelsmann will now pay $130 million to the publishers , says the story, going on:
Several record companies first filed the suit in 2000 against venture capital firm Hummer Winblad, which invested about $13 million to help launch Napster, and Bertelsmann, which invested (or loaned, as argued by Bertelsmann in court) about $85 million, after the lawsuit was filed.
Spearheaded by HFA, a class of more than 27,000 publishers later joined the suit. Since BMG Music Publishing was a unit of Bertelsmann, rights in that publisher’s songs were not part of the case.
Also See:
Billboard – Pubs, Bertie Reach $130M Settlement Over Napster , August 31, 2007
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September 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 am
Dear BMG,
How does it feel to get your ass handed to you in court? How does it feel to fork over a ridiculous amount of money to a bunch of copyright whores for some stupid little mistake? I’ll bet it doesn’t feel so good when you’re the one that has to suffer, now does it?
Better get used to it, because it’s only a matter of time before you have to pay more and more in damages to the people you’ve been suing. Nothing like sweet poetic justice when your tyranny and corruption gets thrown back in your face when you push your luck too far.