Lycos Norwegian Partner Sued Over MP3 Search Engine

Computergram International, March 25, 1999

A global recording industry body has launched legal proceedings against a Norwegian partner of Lycos Inc. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has filed suit against FAST Search 7 Transfer ASA and is also mulling action against Lycos itself. The IFPI says Lycos' search engine provides access to thousands of pirated MP3 audio files on the internet.

"There is a very important doctrine called contributory infringement under copyright law," IFPI chair Jason Berman told Reuters, "and given the nature of the process that Lycos has embodied with the FAST Search and Transfer, it takes this to a totally different level." Espen Brodin, the managing director of FAST, said the lawyers are "shooting the messenger". By making it easy to copy audio files at very high qualities, MP3 is thought to have encouraged pirates to reproduce and redistribute copyrighted material. By their very nature, these kinds of activities are nearly impossible to police. The industry's anger has been vented instead on the makers of enabling technologies. Since the Recording Industry Association of America sued Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc for marketing its Rio MP3 device last year, companies building tools which use the audio compression format have been the victims of serial lawsuits.