AfterDawn: News

Universal sues two video sharing sites

Universal Music Group has filed lawsuits against online video sharing sites Grouper and Bolt.com for allowing users to swap its music videos without permission.

"Grouper and Bolt... cannot reasonably expect to build their business on the backs of our content and the hard work of our artists and songwriters without permission and without compensating the content creators," explained a spokesman for Universal.



The suits accuse both Grouper Network Inc., bought by Sony Pictures Entertainment back in August, and privately held Bolt.com of "actively participating in the infringement by copying, reformatting, distributing and creating derivative works from Universal's musicians," according to Yahoo! News.

Vivendi-owned Universal also threatened to add Sony Pictures as a defendant.

Grouper and Bolt.com are small video sharing sites similar to the extremely popular YouTube.com, acquired by software innovator Google Inc. earlier this month.

Universal, whose artist line-up includes U2, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, said it is seeking damages up to as much as $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement plus costs. It predicted that thousands of music videos were being viewed on both sites, to their benefit alone.

Sources:
- Reuters via Yahoo! News
- Betanews

Written by: Ben Reid @ 17 Oct 2006 16:20

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• 15 comments

• ZippyDSM

  lets sue the world for taping off the radio to!

  17.10.2006 17:08 #1

• coleken3

  Im getting tired of the entertainment industry. They are the ruining themselves. Blame everything on piracy cause the new Jessica Simpson album falls shot of the studios goals. Blame piracy cause the latest movies to come out suck. The good ol US of P.
  United States of Piracy. Lame and hope to see people stop buying cds"overpriced" and dvds"also over priced" but at least they come with useless bonus crap.We dont even have to get into hd dvd or blu ray since they cant even get the whole hi def thing straight.

  17.10.2006 17:33 #2

• ZippyDSM

  coleken3
  its the in thing blame, sue and distract from the real issues.

  17.10.2006 17:44 #3

• pierrrre

  Never heard of these two web sites. Just put them in my favorites. Thanks Universal Music Group.

  18.10.2006 04:51 #4

• Lethal_B

  Quote:Never heard of these two web sites. Just put them in my favorites. Thanks Universal Music Group.LOL! That's hilarious.
  
  But it's true -- the more they sue, the more determined music fans become..

  18.10.2006 09:00 #5

• c4iscool

  this is bad. the industry is sueing smaller sites so it has a foot to stand on when it's sues googtube. I hate the MPAA and RIAA.

  18.10.2006 09:10 #6

• hughjars

  Let's see it get really serious (and funny).
  
  If sites are accessories to pirating then what does that make the manufacturers of every copying system and media out there?
  
  Let's see them go after the real big fish in this.......for the few seconds it takes until that 'not so easy target' tells them where to get off.
  
  Same old same old, they're a bunch of vile bullying b@st@rds only out to persecute the little guy to scare other little guys, as always.

  18.10.2006 11:26 #7

• oofRome

  UMG is possibly suing Sony for music video sharing?
  
  ...
  
  
  AHAHAHAHAHHAH. How ironic.

  18.10.2006 12:21 #8

• alphabit

  They have discovered a new form of revenue...sueing everyone they can, for anything they can. It beats the hell out of making a good product, or even working for a living. And I am sure that even though they sue in behalf of their "artists and songwriters" that they give the money that they have settled for, to them. By golly they will get all those "rotten little 10 and 12 year olds" for recording or god forbid "downloading" Mariah Carey songs or even mentioning her name without paying for the rights to do so. I myself, when I do find a cd worth buying I promise to make at least 10 copies and give them to anybody who was even slightly interested in purchasing them.But before I do buy I will think of all this crap the RIAA does to common folk and probably not even buy that much. Screw the RIAA, before they screw you and your kids!

  22.10.2006 08:16 #9

• tomthebom

  If they put as much effort into "Making Poverty History" as they do into protecting the greed of the Multinationals, poverty would probably disappear overnight.

  22.10.2006 11:32 #10

• ZippyDSM

  tomthebom
  are you kidding without the poor the rich would get cheap labor!

  22.10.2006 11:39 #11

• RAMBORAY

  Why can we buy video + dvd recorders if we cannot copy anything?
  Lets sue the manufacturers for aiding + abeiting a crime by providing the means to break the law.
  

  22.10.2006 12:35 #12

• ZippyDSM

  RAMBORAY
  the Industry wants it both ways they want to sell you the stuff to back up with they want to sell you the new media and want you to rebuy that media every 8 years.
  

  22.10.2006 12:46 #13

• TazmanYo

  "Why can we buy video + dvd recorders if we cannot copy anything?
  Lets sue the manufacturers for aiding + abeiting a crime by providing the means to break the law."
  
  I love this quote. I think I'm gonna put it on a t-shirt.
  

  27.10.2006 10:46 #14

• chaos_zzz

  Originally posted by coleken3: Im getting tired of the entertainment industry. They are the ruining themselves. Blame everything on piracy cause the new Jessica Simpson album falls shot of the studios goals. Blame piracy cause the latest movies to come out suck. The good ol US of P.
  United States of Piracy. Lame and hope to see people stop buying cds"overpriced" and dvds"also over priced" but at least they come with useless bonus crap.We dont even have to get into hd dvd or blu ray since they cant even get the whole hi def thing straight.right bro when they get together and figure out prices and stuff they will end up all this of course .i would rather buy a dvd movie but they overcharge so much, a dvd is less thann a dollar the case mist be like 2 dollar top plus getting the dvd to the store plus a administration cost let's say 5 they sell it 20 25 and when it's like a year old they go 15 and when it's wasted like 10 so overcharge, and music albums more overcharged , and now with the hidef war nobody knows wich will win and movies are like 30 or 40 so is it better to watch at the movies cuz that is kind of the point on having a movie cuz u watch at home a month later of course but u end up saving some money right? With this attitude al they are gonna win is hate from customers. "Prices are going higher but not our salaries :("

  11.9.2007 18:50 #15