Article Summary: 'Universal sues MySpace' By Mark Sweney

The key points of this article (published on Monday 20th November 2006, mediaguardian.co.uk) and this article (published on Friday 17th November 2006, BBC News) are:

• Universal Music has filed a lawsuit against MySpace and claim that the social networking website is encouraging copyright infringement.
• According to the Wall Street Journal, Universal filed the lawsuit after a breakdown in licensing negotiations with News Corporation.
• Universal alleges that much of the material on MySpace is stolen from copyright holders.
• Universal have previously sued video sharing websites bolt.com and Sony-owned Grouper over copyright infringement.
• MySpace and Universal have been negotiating toward a deal in which News Corporation would pay a licensing fee for Universal content.
• Universal are hoping for maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each infringement.
• Universal chairman, Doug Morris, made a licensing deal with YouTube shortly before it was acquired by Google.
• MySpace said it acted legally and dismissed the "meritless litigation" and that its procedures for removing illegal downloads were good and that it fully complied with copyright laws.
• MySpace last month unveiled technology to block users from uploading music to their pages for which they do not hold the copyright.
• It will use a file-filtering application to scan old and new content to weed out any unauthorised material.