Last year, a small blues-based independent label, Blue Destiny Records, filed suit against Google, Microsoft, and Rapidshare on grounds that Rapidshare, in linking to copyrighted material, was violating copyright law, while search engines Google and Microsoft’s Bing were promoting Rapidshare’s system. Which sounds kind of illogical and money-grubbing, so unsurprisingly, in March of this year Blue Destiny voluntarily withdrew its lawsuit. Google no longer had anything to worry about, right?
Wrong. Google has recently decided to go all playground bully on the smaller record label, asking Blue Destiny to waive its right to pursue litigation on the issue in the future. When the label refused, Google decided to sue them right back, which isn’t petulant or childish at all. The apparent benefit of Google flexing its muscles over a much smaller company is that, in the likely case that the courts rule in favor of Google, it will set a precedent for larger cases that explore whether search engines help to promote copyright infringement.
So, I guess, kudos to Google for throwing its weight around and trying to crush an independent record label to get around potentially damaging litigation.
• Blue Destiny: http://www.bluesdestinyrecords.com
• Google: http://www.google.com
