Music Law Suits

Major music companies are preparing to mount a broad new attack on unauthorized online song-swapping, the Wall Street Journal reported. The campaign would include suits against individuals who are offering the largest troves of songs on peer-to-peer services. The big recording companies, working through their trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America, are moving toward filing copyright lawsuits that would target the highest volume song providers within the services, which allow people to grab …

…five parent companies of the big record labels are completely behind suing individual users, a move that could put some of them in an awkward position. Some officials, particularly from AOL Time Warner Inc. and its Warner Music Group, have raised concerns about the problems that could be caused by such suits and the complexity of proceeding with them. The suits could set the company against many users of its own America Online Internet service.