Universal Music Group sued MySpace.com on Friday, alleging that the social networking site that bills itself as a source of "user generated" content instead trades on "user stolen" songs and music videos.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, described MySpace as a "vast virtual warehouse" of pirated works from some of the company's best-known artists, including Mariah Carey, Diana Krall and U2. Universal claims that "no intellectual property is safe" from the alleged copyright infringement, even unreleased albums such as Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come."
The dispute pits the world's largest music label against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp., which acquired MySpace for $580 million in September 2005. Universal has embarked on an aggressive legal campaign against social networking sites since it reached an agreement last month to license its songs and music videos to YouTube Inc., now owned by Google Inc.
Since then, Santa Monica-based Universal has filed federal lawsuits against Grouper Networks Inc. and Bolt Inc. for permitting users to post without authorization hundreds of music videos from popular artists.
Universal, a unit of France's Vivendi, is seeking damages of $150,000 for each unauthorized music video or song posted on MySpace, alleged that MySpace not only is aware of the infringement but also makes money selling advertising to the millions of users attracted by the lure of free access to copyrighted works.
"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," Universal said in a statement. "Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace."
In a written response, MySpace said it did not "induce, encourage or condone" copyright violation in any way. Indeed, on Friday it announced a new tool to make it easier and faster for content holders to remove unauthorized content from the site.
"MySpace provides an extraordinary promotion platform for artists -- from major labels to independent acts -- while respecting their copyrights," a company spokeswoman said. "We have been keeping [Universal Music] closely apprised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators' rights. It's unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation."
