Napster attack launched on behalf of the late Roy Orbison
news.lycos.com
Tuesday, February 27, 2001
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Copyright.net said Tuesday it has sent
e-mails to Napster identifying more than one million copyright
violations of the late rock legend Roy Orbison's songs on the
popular song-swap service.
The e-mails were sent on behalf of Roy Orbison Music Co. and
Barbara Orbison Music on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, by Nashville,
Tennessee-based Copyright.net, which used its Copyright Agent
software to identify 1,001,082 specific violations, triggering
enforcement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Orbison died at the age of 52 in December, 1988. Although he
shared the same rockabilly roots as Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley,
he went on to pioneer an entirely new brand of country/pop-based
rock and roll in the early 1960s.
Orbison's many big hits include "Oh, Pretty Woman." He also played
in the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne
and George Harrison.
Copyright.net said Napster has cooperated with past enforcement
actions by Copyright.net.
Copyright.net said it has also begun to help Napster customers
reinstate their accounts, once the identified copyright violations
are removed.
The notification of Orbison infringements comes as the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) broadened its enforcement
actions by issuing cease-and-desist orders to over 75 Napster-like
services.
Napster's service, developed by 19-year-old college dropout
Shawn Fanning, lets fans swap songs for free by trading MP3 files,
a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small
computer files. It has attracted over 60 million users.
The company heads to court Friday for the next phase of legal
proceedings aimed at shutting it down. An appeals court decision
earlier this month sided with a lower court, ruling that Napster's
service contributed to massive copyright violations.
The RIAA is representing the world's biggest record labels --
including Vivendi Universal's Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner
Music, EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann's AG BMG who first sued
Napster for copyright infringement in December 1999. |
