Sony, Other Music Labels Sue Internet Archive for Stolen Music

New York(USA),13/08/23: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and other record labels have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the nonprofit Internet Archive on Friday, citing its streaming archive of digitised music from historic LPs.

According to the labels’ lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, the Archive’s “Great 78 Project” serves as a “illegal record store” for songs by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday.

They cited 2,749 sound-recording copyrights that they claim the Archive violated. According to the labels, their damages in the case might total $412 million.

The Internet Archive’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint.

The Internet Archive, situated in San Francisco, digitally preserves webpages, books, audio recordings, and other items. It likens itself to a library and claims to “provide universal access to all knowledge.”

The Internet Archive is already facing another federal lawsuit in Manhattan from major book publishers, who claim that the pandemic’s digital-book lending programme infringes their copyrights. In March, a judge found in favour of the publishers, a judgement that the Archive intends to appeal.

The Great 78 Project seeks donations of 78-rpm records (the dominant record format from the early 1900s through the 1950s) to digitise in order to “ensure the survival of these cultural materials for future generations to study and enjoy.” According to its website, the collection has over 400,000 recordings.

According to the labels’ lawsuit, the project includes hundreds of their copyrighted recordings, such as Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

The recordings, according to the lawsuit, are all available on authorised streaming sites and “face no danger of being lost, forgotten, or destroyed.”