AOL At Fault For MP3 Piracy, German Court Rules

15-Apr-00

A German court this week ruled that America Online, Inc. is liable for music piracy on its Web sites, according to published reports. While the judgment applies only to Germany, and the Internet service provider plans to appeal, the decision sets the stage for a number of similar lawsuits pending in US courts. Hit Box Software, partly owned by AOL, is demanding about $50,000 in damages. A Bavarian state court in Munich upheld Hit Box's claim that AOL was responsible for letting people trade MP3-encoded music files on the service, but postponed its decision on the amount of the reward. The suit centered around three instrumental versions of pop songs that were downloaded for free more than a 1,000 times via AOL. Following the verdict, a spokesman for AOL Germany said the company cannot monitor every page on its servers that that such an effort would amount to censorship. Source: Pro Sound News