MP3tunes driven into bankruptcy by EMI

Remember mp3tunes? It was an early online music locker of the sort that are becoming increasingly common these days. But it never took off, mainly because EMI spent a long time calling for them to be closed down, even after they'd been given an OK from the courts.

EMI will be happy now, though, as they've won their war of attrition. Mp3tunes have filed for protective bankruptcy.

Mp3tunes aren't happy:

"EMI spent an estimated $10 million dollars with multiple law firms to arm their attack against MP3tunes in an attempt to thwart unlicensed personal lockers," according to Robertson. "They know it's difficult if not impossible for startups to fight long costly legal battles... This happened with the music search engine Seeqpod, Muxtape, Favtape and many others that have quietly faded away."

EMI, naturally, are indicating they'd like to kick the corpse around a bit longer, and will pursue the lawsuit to prove something or other. Probably that EMI have no idea when to stop.

EMI put brave face on losing massive court case

The main meat-and-potatoes of EMI's case against mp3tunes was to rule that music locker services were illegal. It lost, with a court in America saying that simply storing your music online doesn't break the law.

EMI did get a small bone, though, as the mp3tunes search engine was told to remove some unlicensed recordings. They decided to seize on this as a major victory:

"We are pleased that MP3tunes and Michael Robertson have been held liable for infringing hundreds of sound recordings and musical compositions through their Sideload and MP3tunes website," EMI told Torrentfreak.

"At the same time, we're disappointed that the Court found that MP3tunes was entitled to a safe harbor for some of its conduct under the DMCA."

Disappointed might not be the bets word for a decision which effectively means anyone can run a music locker service without the need for record label's permission. The majors have just lost a potential, massive, cash-cow.

But, hey, a few tracks have been taken off sideload. So, well done, you.

MP3Tunes seeks defence funds

The take-your-music-anywhere service MP3Tunes, currently fighting legal action from EMI, is looking for funds to stay in the battle. They're appealing to their customers to upgrade to the premium version of their service; the money will be spent keeping lawyers in the manner to which they've become accustomed:

Let me start by saying that as the CEO of MP3tunes I appreciate your support over the last few years. Your suggestions and patience have helped us build the Locker system we have today. We just launched AutoSync that makes managing your music collection easier than ever.

As you may be aware, the major record label EMI has sued MP3tunes, claiming our service is illegal. You can read about the case here. Much is at stake — if you don’t have the right to store your own music online then you won’t have the right to store ebooks, videos and other digital products as well. The notion of ownership in the 21st century will evaporate. The idea of ownership is important to me and I want to make sure I have that right and my kids do too.

I would like to ask for your assistance in our battle for personal music ownership. We need your help because we are a small, 15-person company battling an international giant. They would like to make us spend all of our money paying legal bills. Here’s what you can do to help:

1) Please upgrade to a Premium account. This week MP3tunes is launching 3 service levels. I hope you will consider signing up for one of the paid levels. This will not only help us pay for the costs of our service (machines, storage and bandwidth) but a portion will go to cover our legal costs in our case with EMI.

2) If you have a chance to talk publicly about our cause on your blog, with friends, reporters or even EMI personnel please do so. MP3tunes is working hard to design a secure personal music service. We don’t promote sharing of music in any manner. We want people to legally acquire their music. But once they do, we think it’s important that you be able to use it how you want for your personal use. The AmazonMP3 store says: “You may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use.” and this is what MP3tunes allows you to do.

You have my commitment that I’ll continually battle for your right to store your music online and listen to it anywhere on any device. I hope you’ll consider helping MP3tunes in our battle. Thanks.
– Michael Robertson
CEO
MP3tunes.com

Detailing the incredible odds the company faces in the courtroom is effectively suggesting you put your money into a service which might disappear with the slap of the judge's gavel. It's a singular pitch for an upgrade - never mind the extended storage or improved features; upgrade to take your part in a moral struggle.

EMI sues MP3Tunes sues EMI sues...

In what seems to be a never-ending spiral of lawsuits, EMI have responded to a lawsuit from MP3Tunes by suing back.

MP3Tunes and Sideload are Michael Robertson's companies. He originally ran MP3.com, before that collapsed in lawsuits and he sold up to Universal. MP3Tunes is a musiclocker service, where you can upload songs and listen to them whenever you're near the internet; sideload is a music file search engine.

Back in the summer, EMI sent a takedown notice to Sideload, grumping that a search engine which finds musical files could discover stolen and illegal tunes. Sideload responded with a lawsuit.

This latest action, suggest Robertson, is in response to the response:

EMI's complaint says MP3tunes' two Web sites offer an integrated music service, allowing users to listen to music on their computers, obtain copies of songs online, transfer music to their computers and portable devices, and distribute it to others.

Sideload.com streams music to users, enabling them to listen to a wide array of music on demand, the complaint said.

Robertson sold MP3.com and "ultimately started this one as a vehicle to achieve a comparable infringing purpose," the complaint read. "MP3tunes, however, does not own the music it exploits; nor does MP3tunes have any legal right or authority to use or exploit that music."

Which seems to be a digital nonesense - after all, Roberts makes radios which people use to listen to music on, but they have no rights to the music which their technology exploits. It's a pity to see EMI - who under their new owners had been showing signs of taking a slightly less lawyertastic approach to digital territory disputes - behaving like it's still 1999 (even admitting it's effectively fighting the mp3.com battle through a proxy.) Perhaps the US team need to get a memo from London?