Universal Music Group has just sued MySpace.com for infringing upon its music videos and songs. This appears to be an attempt by Universal to pierce the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would otherwise protect MySpace from liability if it promptly removed the infringing material upon notification of infringement.

At what point does the entertainment industry cross the bounds with shakedown suits and get slapped by Congress notwithstanding the lobbying efforts and campaign contributions? I’m not condoning infringement.

However, the DMCA is a draconion law whose safe harbor provisions is the one thing that protects legitimate businesses from being greenmailed into submission by RIAA, the MPAA, etc.

Universal, owned by Vivendi, forced YouTube into a settlement prior to acquisition by Google. Let’s hope that News Corp., the parent of MySpace, doesn’t capitulate and the judicial system upholds the safe harbor provisions.

There’s an old saying: pigs get fat while hogs get slaughtered. Universal should be content to be the former.

Hat tip to Alex Veiga at the Associated Press.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.