Universal Music Sues MySpace

Grooves writes "Universal Music is suing MySpace for copyright infringement. Universal threatened to sue YouTube before the Google acquisition was announced, so now it looks like they have moved on to the next target. Ars speculates that Universal is really after a piece of the action. 'On the morning of the Google-YouTube deal, Universal — along with Sony BMG and CBS — signed a licensing agreement with YouTube. If MySpace were to sign a similar agreement with the label, there is little doubt that the lawsuit would disappear.'"

Comments

Won't catch Google by surprise...

[slobber]

Google doesn't maintain a lawsuit defense fund for nothing. Rumor has it that it grew to $500M after youtube was acquired. Apparently google was aware that likelihood of lawsuit would go up dramatically. It looks like Universal decided to test legal waters on MySpace first before tackling Google.

Re:Won't catch Google by surprise...

[Salvance]

What's really unfortunate is that the lawsuits' end result is that the music industry gets significant licensing revenues from the deal, but the agreements are setup in such a way that the individual artists never do. Many of these are artists would be more than happy to share their music (or some subset thereof), but not in a situation where everyone is making money from their music except the creators.

Re:Won't catch Google by surprise...

[Anonymous Coward]

hit right on the head. I mean the big 5 studios are looking at all the options from drm to clearances--they're getting attacked by both sides (distributors who want to open things up like youtube as well as content creators wanting music-like licenses).

Myspace is owned by FOX. Studios suing studios never happens. They always strike a deal as it's the industry that needs to be protected. This is testing the legal system against Google, MS and Yahoo--new media poo-poos old media cause it's all about the content and access--and new media doesn't have the quality content...YET.

Let the real media wars (between old and new media) begin.

Extortion

[anubi]

Looking at all these Slashdot reports of suing, it looks like this is the standard practice of corporate extortion.

This way, the "barriers to entry" can be set to any level the more powerful entity desires, so they can maintain their monopoly.

Smaller companies simply do not have the financial stamina to fend off litigation attacks like this.

The strongest ( most well funded ) entities will do well under such a system.

The rest of us... well... better do it in another country.

Re:Extortion

[General Alcazar]

Looking at all these Slashdot reports of suing, it looks like this is the standard practice of corporate extortion.

Another option for those being sued might be to not base their revenue on copyright infringement and other obviously illegal practices. You make it sound like the only reason Universal is suing is because they have tons of money, which means they can make up their own laws. It may actually have to do with the fact that they actually have a case.

Re:Extortion

[ClassMyAss]

Except that they really shouldn't have a case as long as MySpace is taking infringing material down as soon as it is brought to their attention. By my reading, the safe harbor provisions were specifically put in place to protect exactly the type of thing that MySpace has going on, a webpage hosting service that they cannot be expected to police entirely. The fact that their software automatically does a format-shift when people upload videos isn't (or at least shouldn't be) relevant at all.

This is more of the same - someone provides a tool, some people abuse the tool and do illegal things with it. Too many people to police means that the provider cannot afford to make sure everyone is acting within the law. But the people whose copyrights are being infringed upon can't afford to go after the individuals for both PR and practical reasons, so they look for someone with fat pockets to blame. Frankly I'm confused about what is so different about a tool on a web server somewhere and a tool on my hard drive - if I used Winamp to convert a copyrighted video and then uploaded it to a GoDaddy hosted server, nobody would be blaming Nullsoft or GoDaddy for my crime. It would be my fault, 100%. It is ridiculous that the courts continue to allow these types of suits to continue without any clarification as to what the law actually means when it comes to hosting user submitted content.

I've got to say, I really thought MySpace would be immune to this type of thing, as much as I'd love to see it implode. The fact is, they don't base their revenue model on infringement in the least. If you removed video hosting altogether from MySpace, I sincerely doubt if anyone would even notice, considering YouTube's success in that venue. It's looking more and more like the only safe user content to host is plain old text, and I think that's a damn shame. The record industry middlemen seem to feel that it's more than appropriate to expect everyone on the net to protect their copyrights as fiercely as they do.

Re:Extortion

[General Alcazar]

Frankly I'm confused about what is so different about a tool on a web server somewhere and a tool on my hard drive - if I used Winamp to convert a copyrighted video and then uploaded it to a GoDaddy hosted server, nobody would be blaming Nullsoft or GoDaddy for my crime.

The difference is that MySpace actually generates revenue from advertisement - so they materially benefit when people perform copyright infringement using their tool, and can quite easily be shown to have a vested interest in not vigorously policing their site.

Re:Extortion

[makomk]

It's looking more and more like the only safe user content to host is plain old text, and I think that's a damn shame.

How quaintly optimistic. I take it you didn't notice them threatening lyrics sites a while back, then?

and the shakedown continues

[User 956]

If MySpace were to sign a similar agreement with the label, there is little doubt that the lawsuit would disappear.

And the legalized extortion continues. I wouldn't care so much except that they also persist in extending copyright terms.

For the Love of God, Someone Go to Court!

[h4ck7h3p14n37]

I really hate this crap. Small company does some innovation and becomes popular and the next thing you know, they're being sued by a multi-national corporation that's really just hoping the other company will settle the case so they can get a piece of the action.

I don't understand how MySpace would be liable for copyright infringment that's committed by users of the service. Doesn't MySpace classify as a common carrier? Of course no one ever goes to court to fight the big guys, *sigh*.

Re:For the Love of God, Someone Go to Court!

[Lord Kano]

Actually porn is copyrighted content itself, so they just selectively delete copyrighted content that contains nudity, and let the music videos stay.

If someone produces their own pornographic imagery and releases it to the public domain...

Regardless, MySpace's willingness and ability to police one type of content belies any claim that they are powerless to regulate their users' content.

LK

Universal Music are getting Zune Money

[linuxci]

Remember Universal are getting money off Microsoft for every Zune sold. Perhaps this deal was done in order to give them a bit more money to go after Google. Just like MS did with their SCO Linux licences.

I don't know why so many people are lenient on MS, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice and all that... MS have fooled many people, many times but some people associate anything bad said against them as coming from a zealot.

Personally I think their track record means they deserve to be thought of badly, they have to prove us wrong not the other way round.

Re:Universal Music are getting Zune Money

[quanticle]

The fact is, most people are completely unaware of the track record regarding Microsoft's intellectual property claims. And, as for lenient, you have to be lenient when you're locked into a proprietary platform with increasingly steep costs for switching.

Most people dislike Windows. They dislike that its an insecure platform. They dislike that its hardware requirements seem to increase dramatically with every iteration. They dislike the fact that the install slows down over time to the point that a system takes nearly twice as long to boot at 1 year old, versus when it was new. However, Windows is what comes on the computer and what's supported by the retailers and computer support shops. Linux? Its fine for us geeks who are accustomed to having to support our own hardware. However, the average consumer is going to be turned off by Linux when they hear that it isn't supported by <large computer store> or when they find that <tax/accounting program> doesn't work.

What about Apple? Looking at Apple's hardware (especially after the Intel switch) one sees that you could get the same hardware for a lower price when ordering from Dell. The fact that Apple's software is better doesn't help all that much when you need to make a large upfront investment in hardware to get some potential benefit from the software.

A battle of equals

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

At least this one will be a battle of equals. One corporate titan against another. The interesting copyright issues that need to be decided here can be fully briefed on a full and complete record. That is a plus.

Myspace to russia with love

[zoftie]

They should move myspace servers to russia. Look they can't even stop all out piracy, why do you think they'd care about some teens posting imitations of britney spears?
Or elsewhere, where there is no copyright, enforcable one. Get a few of those Sun containers and ship them around the world.

Sounds like a trend...

[JoeCommodore]

Make a licensing/IP agreement then sue everone else.

I have to wonder...

[no reason to be here]

is this about trying to get a licensing agreement, or are they maybe thinking they could destroy a website that has proved to be an excellent avenue for unsigned and indie musicians to get exposure?

Re:How long before...

[kfg]

They are the driving force behind the broadcast flag.

KFG

Now

[NineNine]

Wow. More myopic IT people. If some of you guys would read about things OTHER than IT, you'd realize that this stuff happens every single day in all industries, all over the world. These lawsuits are in no way, shape, or form, unique. The sports companies (they're not commissions... they're private companies that are treated like public institutions) are very, very sue-happy.

Re:Monopoly by force?

[Wild Wizard]

You must of missed the memo or the previous post in this story.

MySpace is owned by News Corp one of the largest media companies on the face of the planet.

There are no small companies or individuals involved in this lawsuit.

http://www.newscorp.com/investor/index.html
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of June 30, 2006 of approximately US$57 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$25 billion.

Isn't it obvious?

[XdevXnull]

The "little guy" in this case is the legion of 13 and 14 year old kids who are uploading videos they saw on MTV.

Re:No big surprise

[nomadic]

Oh, you like XYZ? Where can I find XYZ's song to see if I like it?

The radio? Amazon.com? BN.com? Jukebox? Listen to it at a friend's house? Listen to it at a record store listening kiosk? There are plenty of perfectly legit ways to try out songs before you buy them.

Re:circumvention of our legal system

[Peyna]

One of the many goals of the legal system is to encourage people to fix their problems without going to court. A huge percentage of criminal AND civil cases are settled without a trial. Many of them never even get close. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.