Universal Music Heads to Court
Universal Music Group sued MySpace on Friday, accusing the popular social networking site of infringing on copyrighted works. Additionally, it also threatened to sue Bank of America earlier this week over a leaked internal video showing a parody of U2's "One."
The label has increasingly ramped up its legal rhetoric in recent weeks, with comments suggesting the company is becoming more aggressive in seeking compensation for lost revenues stemming from piracy of its artist's works.
In the MySpace suit, the site is accused of allowing its users to upload illegal videos and then willfully participating by reformatting and distributing those said videos. It also looks partially motivated by a breakdown in talks between the two companies.
According to news reports, talks failed after MySpace refused to cave in to demands that restitution be paid for videos posted on the site in the past.
"Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace," the label said in a statement. It also said that in turn, Universal has a right to be fairly compensated for its work.
MySpace seemed to rebut those claims, saying it had kept in close contact regarding its efforts to eliminate pirated content on its service, and adding functionality to help companies highlight possible cases of infringement.
"It's unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation," it added in a statement. The announcement of the suit came just hours after MySpace had publicly confirmed earlier reports that it was creating a content flagging system for owners of copyrighted videos.
Universal isn't just limiting its litigation to the Internet - its next target may actually be a major national bank chain. The label sent a cease and desist letter to Bank of America last Tuesday over a video that had appeared on some viral video sites.
In it, two Bank of America employees perform a parody of the U2 hit song "One," although they change the words to commemorate the company's merger with MBNA. However, Universal still didn't seem to care, threatening to sue anyway.
Bank of America had not had a chance to review the letter, while the Universal lawyer that signed the cease and desist letter has refused to comment to the press.