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MP3tunes pushes for summary judgement in MP3tunes case

By | Published on Wednesday 3 November 2010

Michael Robertson’s digital music locker service MP3tunes has again requested that the US courts make a summary judgement in its favour in relation to its legal squabble with EMI. As previously reported, EMI is suing both MP3tunes and Robertson himself, alleging that the locker service infringes its copyrights. 

Robertson argues that MP3tunes is no different than other cloud-based services that exist or are in development that let people access content they have legally acquired from any net-connect device. If he loses this case, he argues, the development of the entire music locker market will be stopped, and users will be blocked from accessing the digital music they have legitimately bought from multiple devices, which Robertson says is unfair. 

But EMI doesn’t want to have that debate as part of this lawsuit. It argues that MP3tunes is more than just a conventional locker service because, it says, the platform really offers users a place to store and access MP3s acquired illegally. It points to MP3tunes’ link to music search service Slideload.com which, the music major says, helps users find unlicensed music. 

Robertson had already asked for a summary judgement on EMI’s lawsuit – ie a ruling without the case going properly to court – but he seemingly made a new request to that effect last week, too. Assuming the judge hearing the case goes the summary judgement route, it could still take a few months for the full consultation process required with both parties to be completed. 



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