EMI and MP3.com sort it out

'They only did it cos of fame. Who? EMI'

EMI and MP3.com have reached a point of consensus over the copyright infringement suit filed by the record company against MP3 in April. The deal will allow MP3 to use EMI's material on My.MP3.com.

It has been reported that MP3 will pay EMI around $20 million in damages and a royalty fee each time a user registers an EMI CD on the site. Another fee would be payable every time a user accessed one of the songs.

MP3 has confirmed that cases are still pending against it from Sony Music Entertainment and Seagram Universal Music Group. These could cost the company billions if they are not settled.

This settlement with EMI follows a US Judges ruling that Napster must cease trading. This ruling goes into effect at midnight tonight, Pacific Time. Napster maintains that real music fans would not abuse the system, and that some artists also support what the company is doing.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the Napster ruling continues apace. Cutemx, a music download site from GlobalSCAPE, has announced that it is restricting access to its services "pending further developments surrounding the preliminary ruling in the Napster case."

GlobalSCAPE's president, Sandra Poole-Christal, commented, "We believe this is the proper thing to do given the confusion over this technology in the market. While the legal issues are being resolved, we will continue to advance our real-time search technology to increase the amount of information available to consumers and make the Internet a bigger place."®

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