Record companies Sony, Universal and Warner have started a lawsuit against Andrew Sampson, developer of the illegal music streaming service Aurous.me. The desktop application of the service was released last Saturday and works similar to that of Spotify and Deezer but the service has also been called 'Popcorn Time for Audio'. It allows users to search for songs after which they can be streamed.
There is one big difference with the previous mentioned services, it doesn't pay royalties to record labels, but downloads the music from illegal MP3 sites. The record labels state in their complaint that Aurous violates their copyright and demand $3 million in damages.
"This service is a flagrant example of a business model powered by copyright theft on a massive scale," claimed an RIAA spokesperson to the Guardian. "Like Grokster, Limewire or Grooveshark, it is neither licensed nor legal. We will not allow such a service to willfully trample the rights of music creators."
https://twitter.com/Andrewmd5/status/654070968680325120
The creator of the service, Sampson isn't really bothered by the lawsuit, he Tweets, "Getting sued for 3 million when I haven't made anything; thats how you know your idea was a good one."
