Here's a topic that has been all over the news since yesterday afternoon. Universal Music Group has sued video sharing sites Grouper and Bolt. (Read article at Reuters and Financial Times).

Coolfer believes media should treat different companies that free streams and those that offer free downloads. (Streams complement label offerings. Downloads are a substitute.) With YouTube, it looked like three of the four music majors agreed. But with lawsuits against Bolt and Grouper, the distinction is less clear. Grouper allows downloads. Bolt allows only streams (as far as I can tell).

So what do the lawsuits against Bolt and Grouper have in common? The need to let the issue work itself out in the courts, to provide the industry a roadmap to follow in the future, to bring some clarity to an important issue.

At least one person saw it coming. Mark Cuban, who was wrong about YouTube, was dead on about the effects of YouTube's acquisition on its imitators. On October 11th he wrote at his blog:

"Rather than suing Gootube, the media companies will first sue several of the imitators and competitors that have no money whatsoever. They wont sue those companies to get money, they will sue a bunch of those companies to build precedent. In particular, they will sue to get clarification on the DMCA Safe Harbor laws."

Which is exactly what the Wall Street Journal said today:

"The suits...mark the first time a major media company has tried to use the courts to narrowly interpret 'safe harbor' protections provided by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 so it would exclude video-sharing sites. ... At issue in the Universal Music lawsuits and several other cases filed in recent months is whether video-sharing sites are eligible for the safe-harbor protections based on the nature of their activities."

Does it look like UMG has different rules for different companies? Sure, but that's always the case when one is a market leader and others are expendable.

[music jobs] The Beggars Group & Matador Records is seeking a Paralegal