RIAA Sues Puretunes.com Music Web Site
from the leaving-the-country dept
Back in May, a Spanish service launched offering music downloads, claiming they were legal, because they received permission from the Spanish authors’ and performers’ rights societies. They claimed that, under Spanish law, that was all they needed to offer the downloads. As expected, the music industry does not agree. Today, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against the site to try to get it shut down. My only bit of surprise is that it took this long. Also, you have to wonder why it’s the American association suing the Spanish company – though the RIAA says it’s because they’re selling to people in the US. In other words, they’re saying that US law applies to everything on the internet, since anyone in the US can make use of anything on the internet. Apparently, local laws mean nothing. Update: Now, this is interesting. It turns out that Puretunes may not actually exist any more. Despite this lawsuit just now being filed, the service went completely offline approximately a week after it launched in May. No one involved with the company can be found. People who signed up in those first few days and paid for a year’s subscription are not happy.
