Universal Music Group and Bolt have announced that they have reached an out-of-court settlement resolving the lawsuit brought by UMG against Bolt. UMG sued Bolt for copyright infringement in connection with the unauthorized use of UMG’s video and music content on the Bolt website.

Universal sought damages of up to $150,000 for each video distributed without permission.

‚ÄúMoving forward, we and our artists will now be paid for the use of our music and videos on the site,” said Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group.

“While our preference is to work out similar arrangements with other user generated sites so that we can bring our music to the widest possible audience, we will continue to be vigilant in protecting our rights and those of our artists and songwriters from services that unreasonably expect to build businesses on the backs of our content and hard work without permission and fair compensation,” added Morris.
Under the terms of the agreement, Bolt has agreed to provide UMG with a multi-million dollar payment for damages for past infringement, against a percentage of the value of the company. In addition, Bolt has also agreed to introduce filtering technologies within the next 60 days ensuring that its users can no longer exploit the music and videos of UMG artists and songwriters without appropriate payment and consent.

With this move, Universal has leveraged the fact its music copyrights into partial ownership of Bolt. The company is working to gain control of other video sites or shut them down.