UMG Recordings, Inc. v. MP3.com, Inc.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
92 F. Supp. 2d 349 (S.D.N.Y. 2000)
Relevant factsFree
MP3.com (defendant) purchased thousands of UMG-copyrighted (plaintiff) CDs and copied the music onto its servers without authorization, allowing subscribers to stream songs after verifying they owned a physical copy (via CD-ROM insertion or retailer purchase); UMG sued for copyright infringement, and MP3.com asserted fair use as a defense.
IssueFree
Whether the fair-use defense to copyright infringement allows a service to provide unauthorized online copies of copyrighted music to users who already own physical copies of the same music.
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