BMG pays $50K in Napster case
p2pnet.net News:- Roxio-cum-Napster II is still trying, and failing, to turn Napster’s exhumed corpse into a significant online corporate music ‘service’.
But it wasn’t the first company to want to do so.
German Big Four record label cartel member BMG tried it and ended up being harrassed by other members who were claiming it was infringing copyrights – just like the original Napster.
That was four year ago and Britain’s EMI and France’s UMG are still on BMG’s case, amply demonstrating there’s no honour among thieves.
However, “Bertelsmann makes first Napster settlement,” says the New York Times.
“Bertelsmann has agreed to pay about $50,000 to settle accusations from Bridgeport Music, a small company in Southfield, Mich., that it had contributed to copyright infringement by lending millions of dollars to Napster in 2000 and 2001.
“The settlement, which covers the small label’s legal fees, is the first sign of a break in a battle that has taken shape amid the fallout from the collapse of Napster, a file-swapping service based in Silicon Valley, which enabled millions of computer users to trade songs online free.”
Napster was forced to file for bankruptcy protection and that being so, “the case is regarded as perhaps the last chance for record companies and music publishers to extract payment for the problems – particularly declining CD sales – that they attribute to file sharing,” says the Times.
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See:-
$50,000 – Bertelsmann Settles With Small Music Company in Suit Over Napster, New York Times, January 20, 2005
