Universal Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement

Steve’s last post on Second Life IP infringement reminded me of this news that broke a few days ago: Universal Music Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement – (New York Times, Nov. 18/06, registration may be required to access).

About the lawsuit:

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is seen as part of a strategy by Universal to test provisions of a federal law that provides a “safe harbor” to Internet companies that follow certain procedures to filter out copyrighted works. The law requires sites to remove such content after being notified by the copyright holder.

If Universal can win in court, it is likely to gain leverage in negotiating licensing terms with user-driven services — just at the moment that those services are attracting deep-pocketed partners.

MySpace’s viewpoint:

MySpace said in a statement yesterday that it complied with the requirements of federal law. The company said it had kept Universal, a unit of Vivendi, “closely apprised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators’ rights, and it’s unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation.”

“We provide users with tools to share their own work — we do not induce, encourage, or condone copyright violation in any way,” MySpace said.

From CTV’s news story Universal Music sues MySpace over copyright (Nov. 18/06):

… MySpace said it was testing technology aimed at enabling content owners to flag videos on the site that they find contain unauthorized copyrighted material. The flagged content is then removed by MySpace. The company expects to roll out the feature in a few weeks.

Currently, MySpace takes down content from its users’ pages when it receives a notice from a copyright holder.

Last month, MySpace began using “audio fingerprinting” technology to block users from uploading copyrighted music to the site. That technology works by checking audio files against a music database from Gracenote Inc.

In both this and the Second Life issue, the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act comes into play. I’m wondering how else they compare…are MySpace and Second Life ultimately following the same course, or are they taking different paths?