MP3.com gets sued BIG TIME.
  08/24/2001 3:29:00 AM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

Yet another lawsuit against MP3.com, this time going after BIG MONEY.   Filed last week, more than 50 music publishers and songwriters, filed a copyright infringement suit against Web music company MP3.com.

  The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Plaintiffs also include the estate of Roy Orbison, a publishing company owned by the Bellamy Brothers, and songwriter and artist Paul Overstreet of Scarlet Moon Music.

  Vivendi Universal is currently buying MP3.com, but that hasn't completed yet, and Vivendi isn't named in the lawsuit against MP3.com. In the past, The company was forced to pay out more than $160 million to major labels and publishers to resolve a different copyright infringement lawsuit. One reason Vivendi may not be named in this current lawsuit is because publishers from it's MCA Nashville are part of the suit against MP3.com.

  This suit seeks actual damages and profits of MP3.com and, alternatively, statutory damages of $25,000 per song as well as a permanent injunction against the company. This would actually hurt Vivendi Universal's purchase of MP3.com, another possible reason why they're not mentioned in the lawsuit.

  The new lawsuit alleges that MP3.com is liable for direct infringement by converting songs to the MP3 format. Furthermore, the suit states that once songs were converted to the mp3 format, MP3.com then loaded them onto its servers and is liable for contributory infringement by creating "on demand" access to the infringed works by subscribers, and vicarious infringement for "viral distribution" of the infringed works downloaded by subscribers and then passed on to others.

  Whew, MP3.com just may not complete it's purchase by Vivendi.

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