EMI and Infospace Reach Settlement on Ringtone Royalties Lawsuit
By Rafat Ali - Fri 04 Jul 2008 11:54 AM PST
EMI, in the midst of its own management reorg, has settled its ringtone royalties lawsuit with Infospace, though the terms were not disclosed. It did disclose the settlement in an SEC filing late yesterday. Infospace was sued by the music label in early 2007, to the tune of $100 million for underpaying royalties on using its music for ringtones. At that time it alleged that Infospace and its then-subsidiaries Moviso and Premium Wireless Services had been underpaying royalties and selling ringtones for songs to which they held no licensing rights...EMI’s publishing also alleged InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) was selling expressly restricted songs, such as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and selling ringtones in worldwide markets where it had not been granted license. Since then Infospace has closed down or disposed off its mobile content related businesses.
EMI changed some parts of the lawsuit in August, and asked for lower damages. Infospace had filed a counterclaim. According to the SEC filing: “The EMI Parties charged that the Company breached two ringtone license agreements by underpaying royalties and infringed the EMI Parties’ copyrights by making unlicensed use of the EMI Parties’ works. The EMI Parties claimed in excess of $10 million in damages for the alleged breaches of contract, and claimed statutory damages for alleged copyright infringement of ‘many millions’ of dollars. The Company denied the EMI Parties’ allegations and counterclaimed for no less than $1.5 million based upon the EMI Parties’ alleged breach of contract and tortious interference.”
As for the settlement: “The Settlement Agreement concludes the EMI Litigation, and InfoSpace does not expect that the settlement reached with the EMI Parties pursuant to the Settlement Agreement will materially and adversely affect the Company’s business or results of operations.”
Posted in: Companies, InfoSpace, Music Labels, EMI, Entertainment, Mobile Music, Legal
