EMI Sues To Stop Sing-Song Cell Phone Tones

EMI Music Publishing filed a $45 million copyright
infringement suit against Global Music One today, accusing the company
of allowing users to download more than 300 EMI songs for use
as ringing tones on their cell phones.

EMI filed the suit against Santa Monica, Calif.-based Global Music
for its "YourMobile.com" Web site that allows users to change their
telephone ring tones and substitute pop songs instead of normal
ring tones.

In a complaint filed with the US District Court for the Southern District
of New York, EMI said Global Music and its president Ralph Simon
had "engaged in a deliberate, fraudulent and deceptive scheme" to
infringe EMI's copyrights.

Among the songs available for download at GMO included
John Lennon's "Imagine," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit,"
The James Bond Theme and "Start Me Up," by the Rolling Stones.
In fact, those are but a few of the songs that might greet visitors
upon their arrival to EMI's site, http://www.emimusicpub.com .

GMO spokeswoman Debra Davis said the company had already
removed the songs from its site when EMI sued, and called the
suit a "knee-jerk reaction" by a company that is still reeling from
having stayed on the sidelines too long with Napster.

"Here you have a music industry that didn't react quickly enough
with Napster, and they want to prepare themselves and make sure
they're included this time," said Davis, who noted that the GMO
site logs more than a million downloads of the disputed ring tones
each month.

Global Music One can be found online at http://www.globalmusic.com.

Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com.