Imeem Sued by Warner Music

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

May 16, 2007, 11:57 AM

Warner Music Group has sued Imeem, claiming the social networking site is allowing its users to share content from the label without permission. The suit, filed in US District Court in Los Angeles, is asking for an injunction against the site as well as monetary damages.

Each instance of a music video or song owned by WMG could cost the site as much as $150,000 if the courts rule in favor of the label. Warner also claims Imeem has done little to prevent its users from sharing content and is actively participating in the infringement.

"Imeem itself directly engages in much of the infringing conduct by duplicating, adapting, distributing and performing plaintiff's works through Imeem's own servers," the lawsuit reads.

The site is by no means the first social networking site to be the target of a lawsuit by the record labels. Universal sued MySpace in November after negotiations between the two companies stalled.

Not everybody agrees with Warner’s method of handling the problem. “I hope that someday soon the labels and RIAA begin to understand that services like Imeem and Pandora are providing free marketing for their products, not stealing their intellectual property,” TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington said.

Imeem launched in March 2006 and has about 16 million users.