There was a victory for music owners and operators of so-called “music locker” services today as a judge in New York ruled such services do not infringe copyright, as claimed by a conglomerate of record labels in a case against website MP3tunes.com.
A “music locker” refers to a service that allows users to upload music they already own in digital format (regardless of how it was obtained) to private cloud storage for playback on any device which supports such functionality.
Shortly after Amazon launched their Cloud Player – the first major music locker service to hit the market, followed shortly by Google Music – they were sued by major record labels. The labels claimed, similarly to the MP3tunes case, that a different license was required to upload and store music than simply to purchase it, and that the streaming of uploaded music constitutes a “public performance”, which would again require an additional license.
They also claim that such services, as they do not monitor uploaded content, are not doing enough to prevent copyright infringement.
The decision today by the handsomely-named Judge William H. Pauly III means Amazon and Google’s worries may well be over. The only company to so far launch a music locker-style service approved by major record labels has been Apple, who are charging an annual fee to store previously-downloaded music as part of their iCloud service – meaning labels will be able to recoup some of the losses they have suffered through piracy.
