A group of major labels in the US, including Universal, BMG, Sony and Warners, have filed a lawsuit at the Manhattan federal court against internet service providers AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Sprint and WorldCom to force them to close down access to website www.listen4ever.com, which the labels claim allows users to download illegal copies of copyrighted music from a central location. The suit claims Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the artists whose work has been unlawfully distributed through the site, some prior to retail release. The site's domain name was registered in January by an individual in the Chinese town Tianjin, just east of Beijing, but information about who runs the site is not available. Unable to take action against the rogue website itself, the labels can only go after the ISPs who allow users to access the service. Court papers say Listen4ever.com is "even more egregious" than Napster, and that it has “clearly located itself in China to avoid the ambit of US copyright law.” An AT&T spokeswoman told the New York Times the company had never before been asked to block access to a foreign site before, but that they had done so by Saturday night. Presumably the suit will encourage thousands more music fans to find ways around the blockage to use a service they’d previously not heard of!
Aug 19, 2002
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1 min read
Major labels sue over download site
Major US labels have sued four internet service providers to block access to listen4ever.com, which they say offers illegal downloads of copyrighted music.