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Project Playlist (http://www.projectplaylist.com) enables
its users to easily find, play and share music with others for
free, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan. The website compiles a vast index of songs on the Internet
and users can "quickly and easily search the index for
recordings by their favorite artists. At the click of a mouse,
Project Playlist instantly streams a digital performance of the
selected recording to the user, who can listen to it on his or
her computer or mobile device," the lawsuit said. "Project Playlist also has begun optimizing its site for
use on iPhones and iPods," the record companies said in the
suit. The Beverly Hills, California-based company, an affiliate
of KR Capital Partners LLC, also allows its users to embed
their personalized playlists on social network sites such as
MySpace, Facebook and Blogger, the lawsuit said. The record
companies said projectplaylist.com gets more than 600,000 daily
users, nearly 9.5 million average page views per day. "In short (Project Playlist's) entire business amounts to
nothing more than a massive infringement" of the record
companies' copyrights, the record companies said. They are seeking to enjoin Project Playlist from continuing
to offer its customers free music and are also seeking
unspecified damages. Attempts to reach Project Playlist for comment were
unsuccessful. The nine record labels are: Warner Music Group Corp's
Atlantic Recording Corp, Elektra Entertainment Group Inc and
Warner Bros. Records Inc; EMI Group Plc's Capitol Records LLC,
Priority Records LLC and Virgin Records America Inc; and the
Interscope Records, Motown Record Co LP and UMG Recordings Inc
labels of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group. (Reporting by Leslie Gevirtz; editing by Gerald E.
McCormick) |
Nine major record labels filed suit
against an online music provider on Monday, accusing Project
Playlist Inc of a "massive infringement" of their copyrights to
the songs of artists such as U2 and 
