MP3.com Settles Copyright Suits With BMG and Warner Music

MP3.com (http://www.mp3.com) announced Friday that they had entered into a settlement agreement with Warner Music Group and BMG.

In successive announcements, MP3.com came to an understanding with two of the five major record companies that had brought suit against them for copyright-infringement. The litigation was brought after MP3.com launched its "My.MP3.com" system late last year.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Time Warner will grant MP3.com with a North American licensing agreement for the use of WMG-controlled recordings on My.MP3.com's popular "Beam-It" and "Instant Listening" software services.

Warner Music will share the monies received in connection with the settlement and licensing agreement with its artists in accordance with the terms of their agreements.

Time Warner, in a statement clearly aimed at other Internet companies, declared: "The settlement agreement clearly affirms the right of copyright owners to be compensated for the use of their works on the Internet."

About an hour and a half later MP3.com revealed that they had also come to terms with BMG regarding their copyright infringement lawsuit.

BMG announced that they had granted MP3.com a license to its catalogue of music for "My.MP3.com"

Michael Robertson, Chairman and CEO, of MP3.com. had this to say about the agreement: "Our agreement with BMG creates tremendous value for consumers, digital artists and rights owners. . .there is value for all Internet companies to work cooperatively with the record industry to build new business models together."