SeeqPod Finds Warner Lawsuit

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:34:33 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the Warner Music Group lawsuit against SeeqPod “an attack by the entertainment industry on the DMCA safe harbors that protect hosting services and search engines.”

SeeqPod has yet to address the action by Warner on its blog. Their most recent entry from January 23rd touted plans to create new search verticals besides search.

They likely thought that as a search site, the Safe Harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would work as written in that law: once advised of a copyright infringement, SeeqPod could takedown the offending link.

Warner Music Group isn’t going to mess around with that process. The EFF said a lawsuit by Warner against SeeqPod reflects attempts by the content owners to change the rules, even as defendants comply with DMCA requests.

“As search engines become more specialized and capable, certain copyright owners have become increasingly dissatisfied with the notice-and-takedown bargain struck in the DMCA,” EFF said.

There is an idea that the notice and takedown method would be cheaper than litigation for many copyright owners, according to the EFF’s notes. But Warner’s riches make it easier for them to attempt to legislate by litigation, resulting in this action as well as one against Imeem last summer; that resulted in Warner partnering with Imeem.

If Edgar Bronfman Jr., wants a partnership deal with SeeqPod, maybe he should have sent them a note. Valentine’s Day is nearly here, so it could have been written like this:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Do a deal with me
Or the lawyers deal with you.

Warner Bros. Sues SeeqPod For Infringement

Mike Sachoff — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:23:09 +0000

Warner Bros. is suing music search engine SeeqPod accusing the company of profiting from "mass infringement" on its site.

In a complaint filed in California District Court, Warners alleges "SeeqPod directly infringes Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, including by making on-demand and unauthorized digital public performances of those works. SeeqPod secondarily infringes Plaintiffs’ copyrights under the well-established doctrines of contributory, vicarious and inducement liability."

On SeeqPod’s Web site the company declares that it is protected from lawsuits under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it operates as a search engine and does not host any material.

The Warner suit charges "SeeqPod searches for a particular type of content-music-that SeeqPod knows is overwhelmingly copyrighted. With simple clicks of a computer mouse, SeeqPod will play the work without authorization and will embed the link on social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook, where the entire cycle of willful copyright infringement is repeated without end."

Last May Warner sued a similar company called Imeem that allowed users to create playlists from streamed music online. The two parties were able to come to an agreement and form a partnership.

WebProNews » SeeqPod

SeeqPod Finds Warner Lawsuit

Warner Bros. Sues SeeqPod For Infringement