[Ecommerce] Universal is suing

[Manon Ress]

Universal Sues MySpace
Over Copyrighted Content
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
November 17, 2006 5:16 p.m.

Following through on threats, Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit
against MySpace alleging the popular social networking site violates
its copyrighted works.

Universal Music, which is owned by French media giant Vivendi SA, is
the world's largest recorded music company. Its artists include 50
Cent, Elton John and U2.

The lawsuit comes the same day that MySpace, which is owned by News
Corp., said it launched a new tool that allows copyright holders to
digitally flag and report any content they own and allege is
unauthorized.

In a press release, MySpace said the litigation is "unnecessary and
meritless." The Los Angeles company said it provides users tools to
share their own work and does not "induce, encourage or condone
copyright violation in any way."

MySpace, which allows users to post their own profiles, pictures and
blogs, as well as music and videos, on Friday promised to immediately
remove any unauthorized content and block other users from uploading
it again. The system relies on technology from Gracenote Inc., of
Emeryville, Calif.

Major-label music and videos are often found on MySpace users'
personal pages, and in postings on video-sharing sites such as
YouTube. Three of the four big music companies recently licensed
their catalogs to YouTube Inc., which has agreed to be acquired by
Google Inc.

People close to Universal Music have said Chairman Doug Morris hasn't
backed down from public statements in September that were perceived
as a threat to sue MySpace and YouTube. Mr. Morris's company reached
a licensing deal with YouTube within a few weeks of his comments. But
last month, Universal sued two smaller companies that run video-
sharing sites, Grouper Networks Inc. and Bolt Inc., over the same issue.

Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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