Cellphone manufacturer Nokia says it is in negotiations with Warner Music Group over the major's refusal to allow its content on the Finnish company's new music download service.
The Nokia Music Store went live on Thursday (Nov. 1) but WMG is withholding its catalogue because of concerns about illegal downloads. At the heart of the dispute is a separate Nokia service called MOSH--a file sharing Web site that allows users to distribute videos, photos and songs.
Sources close to the situation say that content from WMG and other record labels—not to mention non-music copyrighted content from other sources—is freely available on the MOSH service. Until Nokia can reign-in what some are calling a "flagrant" source of piracy, don’t expect a deal from WMG anytime soon. Sources have even hinted at possible legal action against Nokia.
In a statement, Nokia said it did not allow the distribution of copyrighted material on the service and had "industry-leading" features to prevent the uploading of such audio and video.
"Nokia takes violations of intellectual property rights very seriously," the company said. "We have implemented an automated solution from Audible Magic which compares all music and video files submitted for uploading against a database of 'digital fingerprints' of copyrighted content. This prevents publishing of most copyrighted material."
The statement continued: "Should any user uploads escape this automated process, we commit to removing any copyrighted material within 24 hours of being notified that it is on the site. With staff on duty 24/7, in reality most reported content is removed within 2 hours. We are confident that these measures ensure that the rights of the content industry players are being protected."
The Nokia Music Store has a library of two million songs from Universal, EMI, Sony BMG and independent labels.
Nokia launched its new download store in conjunction with optimized mobile phones to play music and games and watch videos.
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