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[FYI] Songwriters, Music Publishers and Recording Industry Take Audiogalaxy.com to Court For Wholesale Copyright Infringement
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- Subject: [FYI] Songwriters, Music Publishers and Recording Industry Take Audiogalaxy.com to Court For Wholesale Copyright Infringement
- From: Sven Gottwald <svengo@fitug.de>
- Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 12:39:54 +0200
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Jetzt hat es auch vielleicht auch audiogalaxy erwischt. Hoffentlich
bleibt denen das Schicksal von Napster erspart...
,----<URL:http://www.riaa.org/PR_Story.cfm?id=520>
| RIAA News
|
| Songwriters, Music Publishers and Recording Industry Take
| Audiogalaxy.com to Court For Wholesale Copyright Infringement
|
|
| NEW YORK, May 24, 2002 – Audiogalaxy.com, a Napster-like clone that has
| facilitated and encouraged the unauthorized trading of millions of
| copyrighted songs, was taken to court today by songwriters, music
| publishers, and the recording industry for wholesale copyright
| infringement.
|
| The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York on Friday by the
| Recording Industry of America (RIAA), on behalf of its member labels,
| and the National Music Publishers Association, Inc. (NMPA), on behalf of
| the music publisher principals of its licensing affiliate, The Harry Fox
| Agency, Inc. and their thousands of songwriter partners. The complaint
| specifically accuses Audiogalaxy of "willfully and intentionally"
| encouraging and facilitating "millions of individual, anonymous users to
| copy and distribute infringing copyrighted works by the millions, if not
| billions."
|
| The complaint further states that, "With functions such as the ability
| to download entire songs and albums, cover artwork, and software, as
| well as a peer-to-peer file-sharing function, Audiogalaxy's system is
| even more egregious than that of Napster."
|
| “Litigation is never our preferred course,” said Edward P. Murphy,
| NMPA’s CEO. “But when a company repeatedly demonstrates its intent,
| despite repeated warnings, to continue to engage in and facilitate
| activities it knows are causing grave harm to creators and copyright
| owners, there is little choice but to defend our rights through the
| legal system. To do otherwise would be to abandon America’s music
| community to the pirates.”
|
| Among the numerous recording artists and songwriters whose works are
| being unlawfully distributed include: Brandy, Boys II Men, Dave Mathews
| Band, Celine Dion, Shakira, Enya, the Beatles, Shakira, Billy Joel,
| Destiny's Child, Alicia Keyes, James Brown, Linkin Park, Madonna, Jerry
| Leiber, Mike Stoller, Paula Cole, Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, Johnny
| Mercer, and countless others.
|
| Matt Oppenheim, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of the
| RIAA, said that the litigation was a last resort after numerous
| out-of-court warnings to Audiogalaxy were ignored or resulted in
| half-hearted attempts to fix the problem.
|
| "Audiogalaxy and Napster are cut from the same cloth," said Oppenheim.
| "Audiogalaxy is profiting by providing its users a library of pirated
| music, including today's most popular hits. Though claiming fealty to
| copyrights, Audiogalaxy continues to offer up virtually all of the music
| we told them should be excluded. The firm's sieve-like filter has been
| totally ineffective."
|
| Specifically, the suit, which also names Michael Merhej, head of
| Audiogalaxy as a defendant, charges that:
|
| ? Audiogalaxy had ample knowledge of the massive infringements occurring
| daily on its system, and in fact marketed itself as the next Napster.
|
| ? Audiogalaxy clearly had the ability to control the works available on
| its system and acknowledged the ability to remove users, or
| alternatively, to exclude certain content.
|
| ? Audiogalaxy provided users with a fully integrated, centralized
| structure and facility, including a hub of central computers to which
| users connected; a continuously updated database and index of infringing
| sound recordings; information about file size, popularity and download
| speed of files; and proprietary software to facilitate efficient
| identification, copying and distribution of recordings.
|
| ? Like Napster, Audiogalaxy seeks to profit from its pirate system by
| building an extensive user base to attract advertisers and investment
| dollars.
|
| Audiogalaxy is based in Austin, Texas. A copy of the court submission
| can be found at www.riaa.com and at www.nmpa.org.
|
| The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that
| represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a
| business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members'
| creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies
| that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world.
| RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of
| all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.
|
| In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual
| property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists;
| conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review
| - - state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also
| certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum™, and Diamond sales
| awards, Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, an award celebrating Latin music
| sales.
|
| The National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc., founded in 1917,
| works to protect and advance the interests of the music publishing
| industry. With over 900 members, the NMPA represents the most important
| and influential music publishing firms throughout the United States.
|
| The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. provides an information source, clearing
| house and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights, and acts
| as licensing agent for more than 27,000 music publisher principals, who
| in turn represent the interests of more than 160,000 songwriters.
| Besides the core business functions of licensing, collections and
| distribution of royalties, HFA conducts periodic record company and
| other user audits on behalf of its principals. HFA is the licensing
| affiliate of the National Music Publishers’ Association.
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