XM Sued by Record Labels Over Portable Media Player
May 17th, 2006 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Music, iPods & Portable Media PlayersUS satellite radio firm XM is being sued by the major record labels over the Inno, a device that lets users record satellite radio broadcasts to be listened to at a later time.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Inno, which stores music and divides it into tracks, infringes copyright. The RIAA’s view is that the Inno turns XM into a download service that resembles Apple’s iTunes.
The lawsuit seeks $150,000 for every song copied by XM customers to an Inno.
The RIAA represents record labels such as Vivendi Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI.XM responded that the Inno does not let people download music on demand, like iTunes, and only lets listeners record radio shows as the law has allowed for “decades”.
Sirius Satellite Radio recently agreed to pay the RIAA licence fees for its S50 recording device. The lawsuit comes after talks between the RIAA and XM on licence agreements for the Inno device broke down.
via BBC
