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Judge rules against MP3.com

By The Associated Press
Arizona Daily Wildcat,
May 1, 2000
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NEW YORK-The Internet-based music service MP3.com plans to continue operating as usual after a judge concluded it is infringing the copyrights of the nation's major record companies.

Robin Richards, president of MP3.com, said the company would conduct "business as usual" and would appeal the Friday ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

The one-page order by Rakoff was the first significant ruling challenging the San Diego-based company that allows users to instantly hear music and add their personal music to a play list.

Other lawsuits nationwide seek to help define the rules of how music will be played on the Internet, a venue that did not exist when the vast majority of tens of thousands of records and compact discs were produced.

Documents filed in the case in Manhattan before Rakoff show that the record companies themselves are creating alliances with various companies to ensure they get paid for music played and sold on the Internet.

The major record companies argued in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that MP3.com made unauthorized copies of 45,000 compact discs, loaded them onto computer servers and permitted its customers to download the music.

Michael Robertson, MP3.com's chief executive officer, promised an appeal.

"We're in a heavyweight fight, and there are five heavyweights (the five major labels) in the ring against us. We will take shots, but this is by no means the end of the fight," he said.

Lawyer Katherine Forrest, representing plaintiff Warner Brothers Records Inc., called it "a straightforward case of copyright infringement."

It was not immediately clear how the ruling would affect MP3.com or its practices on the Internet, though Robertson said the company planned to keep the site operating for its estimated 400,000 customers unless a court order forces it to stop.


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