Bob Baker's Indie Music Promotion Blog

News, notes and ideas on music marketing, self-promotion, artist empowerment and more

November 20, 2006

Universal Sues Myspace for Copyright Violations

According to this ZDNet News article ...

Universal Music Group sued MySpace.com late Friday, claiming that the social-networking site is infringing on the copyrights of thousands of songs and videos. Universal, owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi, claims that Myspace has looked the other way as users unlawfully uploaded copyright music videos.

James Hutchinson posted some sharp remarks about the suit on Blogcritics:

Give music labels time and they'll sue their own grandmothers upon the sole premise that said grandmothers aren't buying enough of the labels' music ... Unfortunately, this is an inevitable action in a bid by music labels to ensure that the money keeps streaming out of wallets.

Of course, [MySpace still has] the might of Rupert Murdoch himself to compete against, but as much of a burden as MySpace appears to be, it has actually done the music industry some good. Rather than relying on Saturday morning video charts for music recommendations, the average consumer can now find for themselves whether a band is worth their hard-earned cash or not.

I'm sure MySpace has been bracing itself for this kind of legal battle for a while now. But it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

-Bob

posted by Bob Baker @ 12:57 PM   0 comments

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