More than 50 music publishers and songwriters, including country artist Vince Gill`s publishing companies, on Wednesday said they filed a copyright infringement suit against Web music firm MP3.com Inc. The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against MP3.com, which is being acquired by Vivendi Universal and is currently transforming itself from music industry rebel to partner.
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, which is the process of buying MP3.com and was not named in the lawsuit, declined comment.
MP3.com officials were not available for comment on the latest lawsuit against MP3.com, which had been forced to pay out more than $160 million to major labels and publishers to resolve a different copyright suit.
That landmark suit stemmed from a database of more than 80,000 albums that MP3.com created as part of an "online music locker" that allowed users to store music digitally and later access it via any computer connected to the Internet.
The songwriters and publishers involved in the latest suit announced on Wednesday contend it is the first suit against MP3.com seeking damages for enabling so-called "viral infringements" of about 1,000 songs.
Bureau Report