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MediaBuyerPlanner: XM Satellite Radio's service allows customers to digitally copy songs, infringing on the copyrights of members of the National Music Publishers Association, according to a lawsuit filed by the NMPA last Thursday.
Filed in New York, the suit alleges that XM is engaged in massive copyright infringement through its subscription digital music download service, writes Mediaweek. Music publishers Famous Music, Warner/Chappell, Sony/ATV and EMI allege in the lawsuit that XM's download service, XM + MP3, is unlawful, in that it delivers perfect digital copies of copyrighted songs to subscribers. Through the service, subscribers can download songs to their MP3 players and save them for as long as they are XM subscribers.
The lawsuit seeks $150,000 in statutory damages for each work infringed upon by XM. The suit listed more than 175 songs, and claims that number is a small fraction of those being illegally distributed.
XM does pay royalties for the performance of songs, but copyright holders say that the royalties were not meant to cover digital recordings.
Earlier this year in an RIAA suit, a federal judge ruled against XM on its claim that the Audio Home Recording Act gave the company immunity from following copyright law.
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