MP3.com Signs a Musical Truce

Music site makes nice with music publisher, but Napster still fights it out.

Sarah Deveaux, IDG News Service

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The news follows Napster's recent major setback in an MP3-related case. Napster lost a motion for summary judgment as part of its defense of a lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America. Napster's software allows its users to find and swap MP3 files on the Web.

A San Francisco judge rejected Napster's motion, in which the company claimed it acted only as a "conduit" for information. As a result, the suit will go to trial.

Napster will claim, among other things, that many songs are authorized for distribution over Napster.com, says Laurence Pulgram, Napster's attorney.

The RIAA hopes to nip in the bud what it considers Internet piracy and copyright violations. Recording artists and their record companies are increasingly angered by what they call unauthorized use of their work by the likes of Napster and MP3.com.

RIAA, MP3.com Spar Over Copyrights

MP3.com sustained a legal defeat in April at the hands of the RIAA, which claimed MP3.com violates copyright laws by letting people download copyright-protected songs from its Web site. The RIAA seeks $150,000 in damages for each title MP3.com has in its database--coming to billions of dollars.

A New York District Court judge ruled that MP3.com is liable for copyright infringement, but damages have not yet been determined.

Meanwhile, MP3.com's agreement with BMI is a bright spot in the company's interaction with the music establishment. It concerns the MyMP3.com service, which enables users to download songs from personal accounts on the site.

The license covers performing rights for songs, but not other copyright interests or other copyright holders, such as record companies, according to BMI. Thus the pact does not cover, for example, "mechanical" rights--the copyright for a specific recording of a song that is owned by a record label, according to an MP3.com official.

The license does cover a recorded performance of a song as long as the composer hasn't relinquished the copyright for that particular recorded performance, the MP3.com official says. The BMI pact could also let MP3.com offer recordings performed by artists other than the composer, if performance copyrights are not held.

The MyMP3.com service is at the heart of the RIAA's lawsuit. Its software matches music CDs that people put in their PCs with CDs stored in MP3.com's library. MP3.com software asks whether they already own the CD, then lets them access that music from the MP3.com library. The RIAA contends the method of verification provides inadequate copyright protection.

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