underpop

http://underpop.online.fr 2001-08-31  
"Viral Copyright Infringement" - The New Legal Bludgeon - MP3.com is going back to court. This time, the company is being sued not just for direct copyright infringement, but also for "viral infringement" -- a novel new legal concept by which MP3.com can be held liable for every MP3 file traded anywhere. For complete coverage, see the Reuters article at Findlaw, or the Mercury News article.

The new lawsuit, filed on behalf of 52 music publishers and artists, seeks damages for three types of copyright infringement. First, the suit claims MP3.com is guilty of direct infringement for copying songs and converting them to to MP3. Second, the suit alleges contributory infringement in MP3.com's subscription service, which provided "on demand" access to the infringed works. Third (and this is where it gets really original), the suit claims MP3.com is guilty of "vicarious infringement" through "viral distribution" of the infringed works; that is, because MP3.com made the illegal MP3s available online, and these MP3s subsequently spread through Napster and and other file trading services, MP3.com may be held liable for the spread of MP3s on these other services.

Never mind that most music traded on Napster (at least in the early days) was ripped from CD. Never mind that it is impossible to determine -- or even to estimate -- how many many of the millions of MP3s traded online originated with MP3.com. Even the legal reasoning is shaky at best. None of that matters, because MP3.com is an easy target and, now that it

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postado por mikhail  # 8/31/2001 06:29:00 AM