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Universal Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement

Here it comes. Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world, filled a lawsuit on Friday against the social networking site MySpace. Thousands of users are frequently socializing on the site by chatting and sharing files. Universal believes that MySpace is responsible for infringing copyrights that belong to its artists by allowing users to share music files on the site. MySpace is a growing force in what is called Web 2.0 services, where community and user interaction is the main idea.

After months of discussion between Universal and News Corp.`s MySpace, the negotiation was broken down by the social networking site, and Universal decided to take things into its own hands. Universal estimates that each copyrighted work that features on MySpace is causing the company damages up to $150,000. The studio`s biggest artists` work is featured on MySpace, sometimes even before appearing in stores, and people can download and share whatever they like through MySpace`s platform.

MySpace`s comrade in the field of social networking, YouTube has taken a different path. The Google-owned site can to an agreement with Universal through a licensing deal that allow users to use the copyrighted video content that appears on YouTube freely. The issue of copyrighted material and the free use of the internet is not new at all, and there has been much talk about music companies taking action against MySpace and its likes. Most companies prefer to stay quiet as the actual presence of content that belongs to their artists on social networking sites is a major promotional tool.