February 1, 2007
Cell Phone Ringtones Not Music to Ears of Publisher
EMI Music Publishing has filed a $100 million copyright infringement lawsuit against one of the leading providers of ringtones, reports New York Law Journal, just three months after the U.S. register of copyrights issued a controversial administrative ruling about the licensing of ringtones.
"The EMI suit is the first significant copyright action taken by a music publisher against a ringtone provider.
The administrative ruling found that the royalties paid for the use of music in ringtones should be based on government licensing rates, as is the case with compact discs, rather than current market prices, which are nearly double.
... In the Jan. 11 suit, New York-based EMI Music Publishing alleges that Bellevue, Wash.-based Infospace Inc.and its subsidiaries withheld millions of dollars in unpaid royalties owed as part of a license agreement between them.
... When EMI attempted to audit InfoSpace's books and records, the ringtone provider restricted access to some materials and provided incomplete documentation, the suit alleges.
In addition, some of the songs InfoSpace has sold were restricted from the license agreement, such as John Lennon's "Imagine," the suit said."
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