[i:Vibes] Record companies sue Audiogalaxy

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Record companies sue Audiogalaxy

13:24 - June 6, 2002

by Steven H

© AG The major record companies and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy Inc., a popular online file-sharing site, in the industry’s latest effort to stamp out services that allow users to swap pirated music. (News from 28th may) ->

THE LAWSUIT ALLEGES that Audiogalaxy, of Austin, Texas, operates a service that allows users to share pirated copies of songs “by the millions, if not billions.” Among the works being illegally distributed through Audiogalaxy, the complaint alleges, are recordings by Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, R.E.M. and others. The suit was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of record companies and music publishers by two industry trade groups, the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Music Publishers Association.
Advertisement “With functions such as the ability to download entire sound recording albums, cover artwork, and software, as well as a peer-to-peer music file-copying function, Audiogalaxy’s system and service is even more egregious than that of Napster,” the complaint says. Audiogalaxy’s founder Michael S. Merhej, named in the complaint as a defendant, didn’t return calls for comment.
For several years, the record industry has been on a campaign to stop Internet companies from allowing copyrighted music to be exchanged freely online. The record industry first sued Napster Inc., which had as many as 60 million users before a federal judge’s preliminary ruling forced the company to shut its song-sharing service last summer as the case proceeded. The ruling by a federal court in San Francisco did little to abate music piracy through Napster-like services, though. Several creators of such services — Streamcast Networks Inc., Kazaa BV and Grokster Ltd. —were collectively sued in federal court in Los Angeles by recording and movie industry trade groups last year.
Audiogalaxy faces a formidable adversary. While no court has made a final determination of the legality of any of the file-sharing services in the earlier lawsuits, and most analysts believe it will be impossible to weed out Internet piracy entirely, the litigation has proved costly for the defendants. Napster, drained financially by its long legal battle, recently agreed to sell its assets to the German media company Bertelsmann AG once it makes an expected filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection. Streamcast and Kazaa recently submitted separate filings in their case indicating that the financial burdens of the lawsuit threatened their existence.
In the complaint against Audiogalaxy, the Recording Industry Association of America alleges that it first contacted Audiogalaxy in February 2001 about removing pirated music from its service. The plaintiffs allege that Audiogalaxy made “half-hearted, ineffectual attempts” to screen out the songs and that the piracy continues on the service.