Universal Music Sues MySpace
Published Fri, Nov 17 2006 10:51 PM
Technorati Tags: Computers and Internet, Entertainment, Music
The recording industry has gotten a lot of bad press in the last couple of years because of the lawsuits it has file against various peer to peer network providers that have allowed the sharing of copyrighted music. Like it or not, the recording industry does hold the copyright to most modern music and has the right to restrict how it can be distributed. This time though, I think Universal has gone too far.
The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit yesterday against MySpace, the popular social networking Web site, for allowing users to upload and download songs and music videos.
The suit, which also names MySpace’s corporate parent, the News Corporation, 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.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is seen as part of a strategy by Universal to test provisions of a federal law that provides a “safe harbor” to Internet companies that follow certain procedures to filter out copyrighted works. The law requires sites to remove such content after being notified by the copyright holder.
OK, that doesn't sound so sinister yet. Why would I think that Universal has gone too far? Is it because I like MySpace? No, that's not it. I think that MySpace has done a tremendous marketing job with it's service. MySpace has a policy in place that prohibits the uploading of content in violation of the copyright.
MySpace also does have a lot of content that is clearly protected by copyright law and that is probably available in violation of the copyright holders rights. It's not the only site with this problem though. YouTube probably has a larger volume of work that has been uploaded in violation of the copyright.
Actually what's wrong here is that MySpace has gone to great lengths to comply with federal law regarding this material, and Universal is fully aware of it. Universal is apparently suing to force MySpace into agreeing with what may be onerous licensing terms.
...
Earlier this year, Universal’s chief executive, Doug Morris, publicly identified the YouTube video-sharing site and MySpace as copyright infringers. Universal successfully negotiated to take a stake in YouTube shortly before it was sold to Google for $1.65 billion, according to executives briefed on the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity. But licensing talks with MySpace recently reached an impasse.
...
Mr. Berman said Universal’s case was intended more to press MySpace into a lucrative licensing deal rather than into a real court fight. “It’s a way to get MySpace to the table,” he said. “It’s less about piracy. It’s a lot about control.”
That's whats wrong with this whole thing as far as I'm concerned. Universal is trying to force MySpace to agree to its licensing terms despite the fact that MySpace has complied with federal law in a clear and unambiguous way. MySpace has been incredibly successful with the online communities that have been built by its users. Universal obviously wants a piece of that pie, without having to do any of the development work or helping to build the communities.
Hopefully this time they've bitten off a little more than they can chew. I don't particularly care for MySpace. It has a lot of problems, especially when it comes to protecting minors, and a lot of people abuse the service. Even so, they shouldn't have to pay "protection money" to the recording industry as long as they're complying with the law.
Read the whole article in the New York Times.
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