Vivendi in Talks With AOL Over Music Licensing, Paper Says
Paris, Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Vivendi Universal, owner of the world's largest music company, is in talks with AOL Time Warner Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others to license music worldwide, said Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.
The outcome of the talks will be known ``before the summer,'' Messier said, according to the paper.
Vivendi will also soon open talks with Sony Corp. to distribute movies of both companies through Duet, a venture they formed earlier this week to sell music worldwide, Messier said.
Meanwhile Napster Inc.'s offer to pay record companies $1 billion to settle a copyright lawsuit that threatens to shut down its music-sharing Web site is ``obviously not enough, and not the right way to act,'' Messier said. ``First Napster must implement the judges' decisions, and then we'll talk with them about how to compensate us for damages. After that we might agree to license our product list to Napster.''
Last week, a U.S. federal appeals court found Napster may be held liable for copyright infringement, increasing pressure on the company to settle the music industry's suit. The court largely upheld a federal judge's order to bar Napster from distributing its file-sharing software pending a trial.
Napster's site, with 64 million registered users, is seen as the primary threat to the future profitability of the music industry.
(Le Figaro Economie 2/24 p.12)
For Le Figaro's Web site, click on {FIGA<GO>}
Feb/24/2001 6:45 ET
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