James Delahunty
7 Jun 2007 14:20
Warner Music Group and online retailer AnywhereCD have settled a dispute over the scope of an agreement the pair had related to selling digital music. Both parties also agreed to dismiss related lawsuits. The current agreement will be terminated on September 30th. AnywhereCD sells audio CDs with immediately available corresponding MP3 format albums for downloading.
However, it was the fact that the MP3s sold contained no digital rights management (DRM) protection at all that brought about the dispute. Warner demanded that the company stop providing DRM-free tracks, accusing AnywhereCD of violating their their agreement.
AnywhereCD sued Warner for breach of contract, business defamation and trade libel and Warner responded with its own suit asking the court to enforce Warner's termination of contract with AnywhereCD. Thanks to today's agreement, albums from Warner artists including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day, will continue to be available for sale without DRM until the end of September.
Source:
Yahoo