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Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal
Aurous confirms legal reps as injunction stops downloads of controversial app
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 19 October 2015
Controversial streaming music app Aurous, which pulls in music from a variety of places – though mainly unlicensed sources to date – announced details of its legal representatives this weekend, after stopping people from downloading the app in response to a court order.
As previously reported, hype around the app – and an abandoned crowd-sourcing campaign to fund a mobile version – meant the Recording Industry Association Of America filed litigation within days of the service launching in alpha.
An injunction then followed on Thursday ordering Aurous founder Andrew Sampson to halt further distribution of the app. The injunction is a “temporary restraining order”, and shortly after receiving it Sampson announced on Twitter that “Aurous downloads have been suspended until further notice”.
Nevertheless, Sampson, who was bullish when the RIAA litigation landed last week, seems to still be up for a fight. Providing media contact information for his two lawyers on Saturday, the Aurous creator added: “Whatever you think of the lawsuit with the RIAA you should be more concerned it’s pretending SOPA is law. That is why we’re fighting”.
SOPA was the controversial proposed legislation that would, amongst other things, have enabled web-blocking on copyright grounds in the US, in line with what has become the norm in many European countries. The tech community hit out at the proposals and successfully kicked the legislation out of Congress, though both the music and movie industries Stateside continue to consider how web-blocking might be activated there.
That said, the RIAA litigation to date has relied more on conventional copyright law, and the precedents set in the landmark file-sharing cases against Grokster and LimeWire, than any new-fangled anti-piracy measures. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what precise arguments Sampson’s attorneys now use to combat the RIAA’s legal action.
