James Delahunty
11 May 2012 14:07
Bankruptcy follows legal tussle with EMI Group.
MP3Tunes is a music storage service headed up former MP3.com founder Michael Robertson. In 2007, it was sued by EMI Group and fourteen other record companies and music publishers for alleged copyright infringement offences.
In 2011, a Manhatten federal judge ruled that MP3Tunes was not violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in permitting users to download tracks, except in cases where songs have been identified as pirates tracks.
In effect, this meant that MP3Tunes was not responsible for the copyright infringement of others, but could be found liable for contributory infringement where notices of alleged infringement were provided and not acted on.
The court did find MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson liable for having personally transferred songs from unauthorized websites.
MP3Tunes has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing assets of $7,800 and liabilities of $2.1 million in its court filing.