[11/18/06] MySpace sued by Universal Music

Universal Music Group is suing MySpace - claiming the online social network site is encouraging its users to illegally share music and music videos.

It accuses MySpace of allowing people to illegally upload videos and of providing the technology for users to share the content with others.

Links to work by its artists including The Killers, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani are available, Universal alleges.

But MySpace said it acted legally and dismissed the "meritless litigation".

It added that its procedures for removing illegal downloads were good, and that it fully complied with copyright laws.

'Key role'

"We have been keeping Universal closely appraised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators' rights," MySpace said.

"We provide users with tools to share their own work - we do not induce, encourage, or condone copyright violation in any way."

But Universal's lawsuit, lodged in a US district court, claims that MySpace "encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorised reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance".

In a statement it added: "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.

"Our goal is not to inhibit the creation of these communities, but to ensure that our rights and those of our artists are recognised."

Technology plans

Universal alleges that MySpace tries to avoid liability for copyright breaches by making its users give the website the right to publish the content.

However the users do not have the right to give that permission, the music firm argues.

MySpace last month unveiled technology to block users from uploading copyrighted music to its pages.

It will use a file-filtering application to scan old and new content to weed out any unauthorised material.

Illegal files, the company said, would be removed and persistent offenders would be banned from the site.

The issue of copyright on sites such as MySpace is a hot topic.

Google is trying to win permission from media companies to broadcast output legally on YouTube and avoid the threat of legal action.


Source: BBC NEWS | Business | MySpace sued by Universal Music

i hate google owning YouTube, they like deleting "copyrighted" videos all the time, which never happened before the buy out. Or whatever other videos they feel like deleting. As for Universal, they should just stfu and all the other Music companies. They should be thanking myspace for free promotion and a venue to seek out some potential artists.

^ co motherfuckin sign,,, this is some bullshit, but what do you expect, corporate america, wants part of the pie, so they sue, it happens everyday, ususally its the middle man, or the little guy getting fucked, now its another part of corporate america (remembe tom sold myspace to some company)

money hungry industry....o that reminds me theres a way to hack myspace to get to download songs wen it dont let..does anione want me to post it if i can find it?

^ I want to warn anyone that does whatever homie above said, that myspace will delete your account if you dont follow there rules, I got deleted at 14k, but im back at 20k now

fuck that shit im not gon do it now that i kno that.

what's the trick? cuz maybe they can't see it

1. Right click the download link and select “copy link”
2. You recieve a large url like the following (one line of course):

http://mp3download.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction= bandprofile.downloadSong&bsid=OldSongNumberHere&so ng_name= Title of the Old Song Here &fid=bandid

3. Copy this line into your browser or into notepad for further reference
4. Right click the “Add” link and select “copy link”
5. It should look like this:

asfunction:addSong,NewSongNumber^Title of the New Song Here

6. Replace

OldSongNumberHere with NewSongNumber
Title of the Old Song Here with Title of the New Song Here

7. Paste in your browser if you have not done so and wait for the download window to appear.

interesting,,, imma make adummy account and see whats up

how'd you get that many myspace friends PDP???