Once again GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that Bertelsmann AG, who
in 2000 entered into a strategic partnership with peer-to-peer software Napster,
has asked a New York court to
dismiss three copyright infringement lawsuits:
 Bertelsmann filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York against claims by EMI Group, Universal Music
Group Recordings, and another unnamed group, who have charged the German
media giant and its U.S. operations with "vicarious and contributory"
copyright infringement through their involvement in Napster, Bertelsmann
said Thursday in a statement.
The music companies have alleged that if it weren't
for Bertelsmann's funding of Napster, the P-to-P service would have been
shuttered in 2000 instead of in 2001, when it was ordered to shut down by
a California federal court. The music companies, which filed their lawsuit
in February, are seeking damages of $ 17 billion.
No court has ever held that by providing money to an
accused infringer, a funder is exposed to copyright infringement
liability, Bertelsmann said in its motion to dismiss the lawsuits. Such a
"groundless and discredited" theory, the company argued, would upset
capital markets by potentially expanding the reach of copyright laws to
actors far removed from the actual
infringers. |
The plaintiffs have four weeks to respond to the Bertelsmann
motion, after which the German media group has a further four weeks to respond,
according to a Bertelsmann
spokesman.
Source: Yahoo! News
