CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST MP3.COM HALTED
A federal judge has declined to approve class-action status for a copyright lawsuit by independent record companies filed against MP3.com.
The judge said the plaintiffs' motion was too vague, according to various wire reports.
Judge Margaret Morrow said she would reconsider the bid for class-action status if the named plaintiff, Unity Entertainment, which reportedly seeks to represent as many as 1,000 indie record companies, refiles within 45 days with more detail. Unity originally sued the netco in November.
MP3.com last year resolved copyright suits with all five of the major record labels, but still faces litigation from several smaller companies, including Zomba/Jive.
Meanwhile, in related news, TVT Records is seeking the maximum monetary penalty in the damages phase of its copyright infringement trial against MP3.com, which began Monday (3/26), according to Webnoize.
The online publication said that, depending on the number of copyright infringements, MP3.com could be liable to pay TVT as much as $150 million.
The trial follows a federal judge's ruling three weeks ago that MP3.com willfully infringed TVT's copyrights through its My.MP3.com service (hitsdailydouble.com, 3/6).
