James Delahunty
16 May 2007 19:24
One of the world's four major record companies, Warner Music Group Corp. has filed a lawsuit against Imeem Inc., a music-based social networking site. The record company accuses Imeem of infringing the copyright of its artists including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day. Warner accuses the site of building up its 16 million members through "illegal use of 'free music.'" The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
Imeem does warn users that attempt to upload MP3 tracks about copyright issues and does not condone or allow uploading of work that the user does not own. However, Warner does not believe that Imeem is the innocent party in this case. "Imeem is no innocent infringer. It invites Imeem's millions of users to flock to its website to copy, adapt, distribute and perform unlicensed sound recordings and music videos," the Warner lawsuit reads.
Warner is claiming damages of up to $150,000 for each infringement and as evidence, the complaint includes an exhibit that shows thousands of "play counts" for its artists' works on the popular site. Imeem is considered the fourth most popular site of its kind in the U.S., behind YouTube, Google Video and MySpace.
Source:
Reuters