Popular songwriters and recording artists Randy Newman, Tom Waits and members of the rock band Heart filed a $40 million federal copyright infringement suit in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Federal Court yesterday against San Diego-based MP3.com, Inc.

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The suit alleges that MP3.com willfully infringed upon the copyrights in hundreds of songs written by these artists when MP3.com copied tens of thousands of compact discs onto its computer servers as part of the My.MP3 service. The compositions at issue include Newman's hit songs I Love L.A., and Short People, the tracks from Tom Waits Grammy-award winning album Mule Variations and scores of songs written by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

The Complaint, filed by Henry Gradstein and Bruce Van Dalsem of Los Angeles-based entertainment law firm Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem, seeks the maximum statutory damages available under the Copyright Act in the amount of $150,000 per infringement, alleging that "[a]ny lesser sanction has already proven to be ineffective in thwarting MP3.com from attempting to profit by virtue of its theft of the intellectual property of Plaintiffs and others," a reference to the fact that MP3.com has already paid tens of millions of dollars in settlements and has been twice found to have willfully infringed upon copyrights in creating its My.MP3 service.

"This is a case of artists banding together to protect their most valuable assets - their songs. More successful songwriters of this caliber need to stand up against copyright infringement in order to protect their own rights and discourage the theft of music written by lesser-known artists who cannot afford to protect their smaller catalogs of work," said attorney Bruce Van Dalsem, who filed the Complaint yesterday.

Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem is a leading boutique trial law firm specializing in entertainment, intellectual property, Internet e-commerce and complex business litigation. In 1999, Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem won California's fifth highest jury verdict when it obtained a $47-million fraud jury verdict against PBS on behalf of singer-songwriter and former Monkee Michael Nesmith.

 

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