Universal sues Grouper and Bolt.com for copyright infringement

Accuses them of profiting from the illegal sharing of copyrighted videos

18 October 2006 16:51 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Universal Music Group is taking legal action against video sharing sites Grouper Bolt.com in an attempt to stem the tide of illegal music video sharing.

Universal is suing the companies for letting users share copyrighted videos, and is seeking as much as $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement.

A Universal spokesman told Reuters, "Grouper and Bolt ... cannot reasonably expect to build their business on the backs of our content and the hard work of our artists and songwriters without permission and without compensating the content creators”.

The suits accuse the two sites of “actively participating in the infringement by copying, reformatting, distributing, and creating derivative works from Universal's musicians”. Grouper was recently bought by Sony, and the lawsuit also makes it possible for Universal to add Sony Pictures to the suit.

Universal has, in the past, accused YouTube of profiting from copyright infringement, but the two companies came to an agreement on the day that YouTube was acquired by Google.