UMG sues MySpace
Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music organization, is suing MySpace.com for allowing users to upload copyrighted music and videos to their profiles without permission from the artists.
“Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn’t be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators,” a UMG representative told CBC News Online.
Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music organization, is suing MySpace.com for allowing users to upload copyrighted music and videos to their profiles without permission from the artists.
“Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn’t be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators,” a UMG representative told CBC News Online.
The suit was filed Friday in California.
The UMG Web site says, “UMG companies handle their own distribution and sales.”
Chase Bland, a senior mechanical engineering and physics double major, said the lawsuit does not make sense.
“I think the lawsuit doesn’t hold any weight,” Bland said. “You can’t take that music; you can only listen to it. It’s the same as visiting a streaming Web site to listen to music.”
UMG feels that MySpace users uploading songs and videos to their profiles are not expressing themselves but illegally using artists’ works.
UMG represents artists such as Akon, Beck, the Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent and Kanye West. MySpace is part of Fox Interactive Media, owned by media conglomerate News Corp.
