Andre Yoskowitz
30 Sep 2007 20:04
EMI has allegedly sent intimidating letters to MP3tunes, a San Diego based website that allegedly "aggregates 'free' music tracks posted by its users."
The letters threaten lawsuits if MP3tunes fails to take down links to EMI's copyrighted material. Of course, EMI also wants monetary compensation.
"Beyond that, we invite MP3tunes to make a substantive proposal both to redress past infringement of EMI works and to a ensure that there will be no future infringement of EMI works," attorney Steven Fabrizio wrote to MP3tunes' counsel.
As a response to the letters, MP3tunes filed a lawsuit of its own, declaring that its business model is legal. Ira Sacks, the company's counsel, also sent a letter to EMI informing them that they had removed 350 tracks from the site but that the take down notices do not comport with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Your attempt to place the burden on MP3tunes to determine which of the songs on its web site are infringing by providing (i) a link to the EMI website which provides a 'non-exhaustive further listing of EMI's recording artists' and (ii) a representative list of songs which you demand be disabled, fails to comply with EMI's obligations under the DMCA," Sacks wrote.
While EMI "correctly supplied a representative list of multiple copyrighted works," Sacks added that EMI "must specifically identify the material that is to be removed or access to which is to (be) removed."
MP3tunes and its spin-off Sideload, offer users unlimited storage for their music and direct users to hundreds of thousands of downloads. The company says however that it is not the next Napster and that none of the songs "are physically available on Sideload." We have all heard that argument before, lets see how it holds up in court.
Source:
Wired