Bertelsmann Sued For Napster's Infringement

Legal Issues

from the does-it-ever-stop? dept

The music industry is never going to get it. Even when a company tries to embrace the technology, those who simply don’t get it are going to prevent it from happening. That seems clear. The latest misstep is that famed music writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are now suing Bertelsmann, saying that it was Bertelsmann’s money that kept Napster going. Thus, Bertelsmann should pay them for all of their music that was downloaded using Napster. Of course, all the people at Bertelsmann who pushed for funding Napster are now gone, and those remaining seem pretty anti-Napster, so you can only imagine how they feel about this. It’s unfortunate to find out that Lieber and Stoller are so greedy they can’t understand that Napster probably did them more good, introducing their songs to a new generation of fans. They also so incredibly greedy that they won’t bother to go after the people who actually (gasp!) listened to their music without paying for it, but rather are targeting a big company with lots of money that really had nothing to do with Napster itself – other than hoping to figure out a way to embrace the technology.