Universal Sues MySpace - Music and Copyright Again in the Hotseat

It's becoming a common theme played out in the courts, in newspapers and on the television. Music giants suing for infringement of copyright.

According to Reuters, Universal Music Group - the world's largest music company - filed a lawsuit against the mega-popular social networking site MySpace early in November. Universal, owned by French media giant Vivendi, claims that MySpace has infringed on the copyrights of thousands of its artists' works. Chief Executive of Universal Music, Doug Morris, had hinted in September that his company might sue MySpace and YouTube, saying at the time that the two websites combined owed Universal Music "tens of millions of dollars".

The latest lawsuit follows on the heels of two others Universal Music began in September when they sued Sony Picture Entertainment's Grouper site and the independent website Bolt.com.

The MySpace lawsuit

Currently bursting with - and boasting of - more than 130 million users, MySpace is a giant in its own right. Combining the power of the Internet with the human desire to connect and make friends, MySpace (for those who have been living in a box and haven't heard of the website) offers home pages to its members and allows them to post pictures, writing, and upload videos and music to be played back and sent to other members.

Universal Music accuses MySpace of actively taking part in copyright infringement by allowing their members to upload music and videos. Specifically, Universal Music believes MySpace is illegally taking part in the criminal actions of their members by reformatting the uploaded videos for sharing.

In truth, members of MySpace can find links to music from Universal artists like Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani - sometimes - even before their official release to music stores.

Owners of copyrighted music and videos can use MySpace's tools to quickly remove unauthorized material, but after several months of talks between MySpace and Universal, the consensus seems to be that this is not enough. Universal is seeking statutory damages for each copyrighted work of $150,000 - which can easily amount to millions of dollars in damage.