Warner Music sues social network site for piracy

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warner Music Group Corp. sued Imeem Inc., a music-based social networking Web site, on Tuesday for infringing the copyright of its artists including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day.

In a suit filed at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Warner accused Imeem of building a base of 16 million users by capitalizing on the "illegal use of 'free music.'"

Imeem users can create profiles and connect with each other by uploading MP3 files to create playlists, which they share.

During the upload process, Imeem issues a warning to users not to upload media that they do not own as that can violate artists' copyrights and is against the law.

But Warner's suit said: "Imeem is no innocent infringer. It invites Imeem's millions of users to flock to its website to copy, adapt, distribute and perform unlicensed sound recordings and music videos."

Imeem could not be reached for comment.

Warner, the world's fourth-largest music company, is claiming damages up to $150,000 for each copyrighted work infringed on the site. As part of its evidence, the Warner complaint includes an exhibit that shows thousands of "play counts" for its artists' works on Imeem's site.

According to data from Hitwise, Imeem is now the fourth most popular entertainment-multimedia site in the United States, after Google Inc.'s YouTube, Google Videos and News Corp.'s MySpace Videos.