The US's National Music Publishers' Association is reportedly launching legal action against back-end digital music provider MusicNet in a dispute over the royalties the digital content firm should pay - especially over mechanical royalties due (or not due, depending on who you side with) on on-demand services and temporary downloads.
MusicNet, which now goes by the name of MediaNet, is one of the big white label digital music providers, powering numerous download stores and digital music services run by other brands and retailers. The NMPA has told Digital Music News that it believes the company is guilty of "willful and ongoing copyright infringement". The lawsuit is reportedly a class action, and DMN reckons it is supported by Sony/ATV, Peer International, Frank Music Corporation and MPL Publishing.
As previously reported, the digital royalties debate rumbles on in the US - especially in the domain of mechanical royalties, the royalty traditionally paid by record labels every time they make a copy of a song owned by a publisher (eg every time they press a CD). The debate is hottest in the domain of streaming services and limited-play downloads where music providers already pay a radio station style 'performance royalty' but where, because an actual copy is, in theory, made as part of the content delivery process, the publisher argue a mechanical royalty is also due.
The publishers' grievance with MediaNet seems to be not only the ongoing dispute over mechanicals, but the perception that the firm has reneged on past commitments to make good on old royalty payments once royalty rates had been agreed.