Record Labels Sue Radionomy Over DIY ‘Pirate’ Internet Radio

Record Labels Sue Radionomy Over DIY ‘Pirate’ Internet Radio

A group of prominent U.S. record labels have filed a lawsuit against the DIY online radio platform Radionomy, which also owns Winamp and Shoutcast. In their complaint the labels accuse Radionomy of promoting and facilitating mass copyright infringement by hosting 'pirate' radio stations of its users. In recent years the music industry‘s battle against piracy mostly focused on torrent sites, cyberlockers and unauthorized MP3 indexes.

However, those are certainly not the only ‘threats’ it faces. Online radio stations, often operated by hobbyists, also remain a concern.

This has prompted a coalition of record labels to file a lawsuit against Radionomy, a platform that allows users to start their own online radio stations.

In their complaint filed at a California federal court Arista Records, LaFace Records, Sony Music Entertainment and Zomba Recording accuse the service of several forms of copyright infringement.

Radionomy, which also owns Winamp and Shoutcast, offers between 30,000 and 50,000 radio stations which are controlled by its users. These stations are freely broadcasted online through a variety of sites and apps.

“Defendants operate an online music service through which users can listen to music stations, or create stations, that Defendants stream to listeners worldwide,” the complaint reads (pdf).