Universal Music Sues MySpace: Should Murdoch Sell?
Posted by Sean Fallon on November 18, 2006
Filed Under Misc. Gadgets | Stumble This
In September, Universal Music’s CEO Doug Morris referred to MySpace and YouTube as “copyright infringers” that “owe us tens of millions of dollars.”
Now it appears that Universal is attempting to collect those millions through a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Universal claims that MySpace not only allowed users to upload music and videos illegally, but took part in the infringement themselves by re-formatting videos so that they may be replayed and sent to others. Active participation, if it is true, could be the deciding factor in the case because they could no longer sit back and claim that users are solely responsible for the site’s content.
Interestingly enough, the news comes just as MySpace introduced a new licensed technology that prevents users from posting copyrighted material. To little too late it seems.
My question is, has MySpace become more trouble than it’s worth? As far as I’m concerned, if MySpace is worth the $6 billion that News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch believes that it is, he should try and get out while he can.
Murdoch claims that MySpace has hit 130 million users and that they are growing by 8 million accounts a month, but it appears that these accounts do not include Murdoch’s own, because if he actually spent some time on the site he would realize that MySpace is riddled with inactive profiles and disgruntled members. It won’t be long before people move on to bigger and better things.
| Trackback |Comments
Leave a Reply
