Bolt Nears Settlement with Universal

Representatives for social video site Bolt.com said Monday that it had agreed to pay a multi-million dollar settlement to Universal Music Group to settle charges of copyright infringement, and agreed to pay royalities on any future UMG-owned content uploaded.

UMG sued Bolt and Grouper in October of last year, accusing the two sites of hosting pirated versions of its videos. At the time, it sought $150,000 per occurrence, which was expected to total in the thousands.

Additional deals are being negotiated with other music labels, Bolt told the New York Times Monday, including Warner Music Group. In order to pay for the settlement, Bolt would be sold to GoFish, a transaction valued at $30 million.

While the settlement no doubt would hurt shareholders of Bolt the most, it likely would give UMG leverage to press ahead with its case against Grouper. It has also sued social-networking site MySpace for much of the same reasons.

Sources close to both companies told the NYT that neither side was involved in settlement negotiations. MySpace had attempted to negotiate with Universal, but talks broke down after the label demanded MySpace pay for past violations.

Court dates for both cases have been set for later in the year.