Universal Music Group is grabbing for another lawsuit target: the biggest target out there, MySpace. MySpace lashed back, calling the lawsuit meritless and unnecessary. The WSJ adds:
MySpace and Universal have been negotiating toward a deal in which News Corp. would pay a licensing fee for Universal content. However, News Corp. balked at Universal’s demand that News Corp. pay restitution for content that had previously appeared on MySpace, according to a person close to the situation.
Cynthia Brumfield makes a good point when she writes,
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.
Sure this is true Liz except that this will take forever to litigate. We need business solutions now, not a five-year protacted litigation.
Aaron
Combine MySpace and a generation that has learned to get everything for free and you are literally asking for trouble. Everything has its price, even a site acting on legal grounds.
Universal has been pushing hard to make money off the web – hence forcing Yahoo and AOL to pay royalties for streaming music videos or their artists, even though videos are in fact 3 minute commercials for a song and album – see http://news.com.com/Price+tag+added+to+online+music+videos/2100-1027_3-5560610.html?tag=nefd.top
I can’t blame them – CD sales are going down and clearly Yahoo and AOL are making money off the content, so why not them?
Asking MySpace to pay for stuff in the past, when it wasn’t illegal however is pushing it too far. Universal Music Group benefitted from their artists getting promoted on MySpace and obviously labels are using MySpace to generate interest in new and old acts – Universal would not want to lose MySpace as a partner.
No more Myspace.com/50cent I guess.