James Delahunty
11 Nov 2007 18:32
The EMI Group has lived up to its threats and has sued online music industry executive Michael Robertson for copyright infringement on Friday. Robertson was the original founder of MP3.com, which ended up paying out $100 million to record companies to settle a similar case. Several EMI-owned labels have filed lawsuits against Robertson and MP3tunes LLC for willful infringement of copyright.
The company runs both mp3tunes.com and sideload.com. In an interview, Robertson said that he had not seen the lawsuit but that it was more than likely retaliation for a lawsuit MP3tunes filed against EMI in September over a take-down notice it received over sideload.com, a search engine for digital music files.
"These guys rush off to court and tell the court that I am terrible and then they end up buying my company," Robertson said. "It is really a shame because instead of using these technologies to improve their business they make an enemy of every technology company out there." Robertson's MP3.com was sold to Vivendi's Universal Music Group for $385 million.
EMI's complaint says that Robertson's two web sites offer an integrated music service, allowing users to listen to music on their computers, obtain copies of songs online, transfer music to their computers and portable devices, and distribute it to others. It claims that Robertson sold MP3.com and "ultimately started this one as a vehicle to achieve a comparable infringing purpose."
Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)