MP3.com
has ended it’s legal dispute with Universal Records, paying the
out $53.4 million in damages, resulting from the company’s Mymp3.com
service. MP3.com also secured licenses from the Universal, the
largest record label conglomerate, and now have permission to
use all of their copyrighted material. The negotiations for the
deal lasted almost 48 hours.
Universal President Zach Horowitz
said the company "pursued this case to send a strong message
that copyrights will be protected."
"It was never our intent to
put MP3.com out of business with a judgment so large that it would
threaten their viability as a company," he said, "We
support the development of legitimate music businesses on the
Internet."
Mp3.com also similar licensing
deals with Warner Music Group, BMG, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment.
The service, which was originally
launched in January free of charge, will now offer two options.
"One will be a free service that uses advertising to generate
revenue but it will have restrictions on the amount of music you
can load in the service," MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson told
Reuters in an interview. A price for the service has yet to be
determined.
