IP Democracy: Universal Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement

Everybody fretted about Universal Music suing YouTube for copyright infringement given the threats lobbed in that direction by Chairman Doug Morris. But Universal cut a deal with YouTube and that settled that.

The other company that got under Morris’ skin was MySpace. Following talks that apparently broke down yesterday, Universal filed suit this afternoon accusing the social networking giant of copyright infringement of music by Universal artists that is included in the site’s user-generated videos.

The two companies had apparently been in talks up through yesterday but those talks fell apart. Perhaps not so coincidentally, News Corp. also announced yesterday that Fox Interactive Media CEO Ross Levinsohn, who oversees MySpace, is leaving the company.

MySpace issued a statement calling the suit “meritless” because there are procedures for copyright holders to request that their content be removed from the site, namely the take-down provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Universal, however, is taking a hard line.

“Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn’t be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators,” Universal Music said in a statement.

Despite fears that this litigation may spur about the health and growth of video sharing on the Internet, Universal’s lawsuit is probably a good thing. With two giants duking it out in the federal courts, the likelihood is good that some kind of legal precedent will be set. Maybe video file sharing sites (and other video-enabled Internet businesses) can finally get definitive legal ground rules, whatever they may be, providing a higher degree of certainty so that the industry can move forward.

The issue, of course, is one of timing. The wheels of justice move achingly, maddeningly slow and this suit could go on for years, reaching all the way up, perhaps, to the Supreme Court. But the law is going to have to become clear to both Internet companies and content creators and then maybe we can all end this chatter about whether YouTube will get sunk by infringement lawsuits.

Update: Stacy Kramer has more details on the failed negotiations. MySpace’s testing of an automated take-down tool provided by Gracenote was supposed to be the last hurdle before the two companies struck a license deal. But Universal apparently wanted to be paid for MySpace’s prior use of its content, not just going-forward use, and MySpace was afraid of the precedent this would set. News Corp. apparently also offered a check to Universal, but it didn’t hit an eight-figure sum that Universal sought.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 17, 2006 5:33 PM to IP Democracy