RIAA Launches New Lawsuit Against Morpheus - For An Unlaunched Feature

from the now-that-takes-guts dept

The music industry is so out to get Streamcast, the folks who run the Morpheus file sharing service, that they've sued them a second time - this time for a feature they never even launched. It was just over a month ago that the courts ruled that Morpheus (along with others) were legal products because of their non-infringing uses. However, that won't make the music industry wake up and look for ways to work with these services that help promote their musicians. Instead, they're looking for any random way to sue them out of business. In this suit, the RIAA claims that Streamcast planned to launch a streaming radio service. In preparation for that, the lawsuit claims they bought a large number of CDs and ripped them into an MP3 database. Now, correct me if I'm wrong... but simply making an MP3 of a recording you legally own isn't illegal, right? The company never actually made that database available to anyone because they couldn't secure the proper licenses. This lawsuit smacks of even more desperation than previous ones. As Streamcast's CEO says, this is likely a "sore loser" move, by an industry that doesn't know how to compete. They just know how to "spend their opponent into submission."
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Max Vincent, 3 Jun 2003 @ 3:21pm

    Bought CD's and ripped them?

    You mean they still have the CDs in question? They didn't take em back to the store or sell em to a used cd shop?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2003 @ 3:46pm

      Re: Bought CD's and ripped them?

      If you can even call them CD's.
      I wonder how many had DRM?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    LittleW0lf, 3 Jun 2003 @ 5:54pm

    Space-Shifting CDs

    Last time I checked, space-shifting CDs (i.e. CD->MP3) was a violation of the Copyright law (as the RIAA is usually always quick to point out,) as it involved copying one format of the disk into another. However, it was a defendable action as a Fair Use of the material, and thus you could be sued for copyright violation, but if you used the fair use defense, you could not be found guilty or liable for copyright violation if the courts agreed that your use fell within the definition of Fair Use.

    Than again, IANAL.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Gene Hoffman, 3 Jun 2003 @ 9:27pm

      Re: Space-Shifting CDs

      Space shifting is likely to fall within private - non-commercial fair use rights. Fair use exceptions are DRAMATICALLY less expansive for commercial enterprises in commercial undertakings. Kazaa does not have the right to make those copies for anything other than backup and then only in furtherance of some legal undertaking - like streaming radio...

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.