MCS sues MS, Yahoo, Real

MCS Music America has filed a lawsuit against Real Networks, Yahoo and Microsoft over alleged music copyright infringements earlier this week. The copyright administration company claims the defendants breached copyright on several pieces of music and their artists. MCS represents a large number of other plaintiffs and says streaming music services such as Rhapsody, Zune and Yahoo Music allow users to retain the copyrighted tracks for an extended period of time, saying the defendants are required to obtain the rights for such a form of distribution.

These services allow their users to listen to the entire track using on-demand streams, or download the song and keep it for as long as their subscription is paid, MCS Music America claims.

While MCS Music America does not own the copyrighted songs that are named in its filing, it does currently or has in the past been the exclusive copyright licensing administrator for each of the plaintiffs it represents. It also named a number of songs for which it is the sole legal or beneficial owner, as well as more than 22 popular songs for which it claims rights.

MCS is seeking $150,000 in its lawsuit for each act of infringement of the plaintiffs' copyrighted works in addition to court costs as well as an injunction preventing future infringement. [via TGDaily]

By Electronista Staff