Mccartney Company Takes Mp3.com To Court

My.MP3.com allows users to store and manage CD collections online. The publishers' suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that copyright violations occur because users do not copy their own CDs onto MP3's servers.

Instead, the suit says, "MP3.com has itself systematically copied tracks from over 80,000 copyrighted audio CDs onto its servers." A user, the suit adds, accesses "these infringing copies and not, as defendant has misrepresented to consumers, the user's own CDs."

MPL and Peer describe the service as "a cynical attempt to exploit the value of famous songs without the copyright owners' consent." The plaintiffs seek a declaration that MP3.com is violating the Copyright Act, the removal of their copyrighted works, and damages of $150,000 per infringed work.

MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson could not be reached for comment.