<story><title>Spotify hit with $1.6B copyright lawsuit</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-hit-with-1-6-billion-copyright-lawsuit-idUSKBN1ER1RX</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>agrippanux</author><text>I was one of the original engineers on MP3.com.&lt;p&gt;Shortly after our music locker service debuted, we got sued by all the major labels.  I spent 4 months writing tools to pull all the discovery data for their lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;When it was apparent our court case was going south, the major music publishers sued us as well (lead by Harry Fox Agency).  I spent another 4 months pulling discovery data for those lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;When those court cases trended badly for us, we got sued by every 2 bit operation that owned a partial percentage of the country-based rights to a song (ie, one company may of owned 4% the rights of a song in the United States and 10% in Mexico and 9.3% in Ireland, with another company owning 1.3%, 40%, .5% respectively). I spent another 4 months pulling discovery data for those lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;Finally, after we where acquired by Vivendi Universal and they took on our liabilities, I spent almost a year writing tools for them to pay these partial percentages.  Have you ever had to split 1 cent via check between 3 parties?  It&amp;#x27;s not fun.&lt;p&gt;Moral of this boring story is Spotify better win this fast and clean or they are in a world of pain; I can never get those 2 years of my life back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jrochkind1</author><text>&amp;gt; When it was apparent our court case was going south, the major music publishers sued us as well (lead by Harry Fox Agency).&lt;p&gt;From the OP:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Wixen also alleged that Spotify outsourced its work to a third party, licensing and royalty services provider the Harry Fox Agency, which was “ill-equipped to obtain all the necessary mechanical licenses”.&lt;p&gt;If there&amp;#x27;s any justice, if they lose at all in court Spotify will be suing Harry Fox for damages too.</text></comment>
<story><title>Spotify hit with $1.6B copyright lawsuit</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-hit-with-1-6-billion-copyright-lawsuit-idUSKBN1ER1RX</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>agrippanux</author><text>I was one of the original engineers on MP3.com.&lt;p&gt;Shortly after our music locker service debuted, we got sued by all the major labels.  I spent 4 months writing tools to pull all the discovery data for their lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;When it was apparent our court case was going south, the major music publishers sued us as well (lead by Harry Fox Agency).  I spent another 4 months pulling discovery data for those lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;When those court cases trended badly for us, we got sued by every 2 bit operation that owned a partial percentage of the country-based rights to a song (ie, one company may of owned 4% the rights of a song in the United States and 10% in Mexico and 9.3% in Ireland, with another company owning 1.3%, 40%, .5% respectively). I spent another 4 months pulling discovery data for those lawsuits.&lt;p&gt;Finally, after we where acquired by Vivendi Universal and they took on our liabilities, I spent almost a year writing tools for them to pay these partial percentages.  Have you ever had to split 1 cent via check between 3 parties?  It&amp;#x27;s not fun.&lt;p&gt;Moral of this boring story is Spotify better win this fast and clean or they are in a world of pain; I can never get those 2 years of my life back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bogomipz</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;quot;we got sued by every 2 bit operation that owned a partial percentage of the country-based rights to a song&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Were these these each each country&amp;#x27;s performing rights societies then? I am confused on why these are partial percentages. I would have though that they would be 100% owned  in each country. Does the performing right society divide up 1  pie amongst all its affiliates in each of the countries.&lt;p&gt;Do you have any idea what the final amount Vivendi paid out to straighten everything out? I am guessing they had good idea of that before the acquisition, so I am guessing it was still a good investment for them.</text></comment>