Universal Music Group is suing the company that sends prisoners mixtapes for copyright infringement.
Since the birth of Napster, record companies have been fighting to save the dying industry. Now, on Tuesday, Universal Music filed a lawsuit against a group of companies for selling “care packages” that family members and friends can send to inmates who are in prison.
Among the items sent to prisoners include mixtapes including artists such as James Brown, Eminem, Marvin Gaye and Steve Wonder.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
“Defendants boast on their website that their business ‘was developed to eliminate contraband,’ yet the infringing copies of Plaintiffs’ sound recordings and musical compositions, in which Defendants unlawfully transact and from which they unjustly profit, are contraband personified,” states the lawsuit.
As the complaint explains, “Mixtapes are a form of recorded music in which DJs combine (or ‘mix’) tracks, often recorded by different artists, onto a single CD, sometimes creating overlaps and fades between songs, and/or reflecting a common theme or mood. Such so-called ‘mixtapes,’ unless authorized by the copyright owner or owner of corresponding state law rights, are nothing more than collections of infringing, piratical compilations of copyrighted or otherwise legally protected sound recordings and copyrighted musical composition.”
Universal is demanding maximum damages in the amount of $150,000 to each copyrighted work infringed.
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