January 23, 2008

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Warner Music Group is suing music search company Seeqpod, claiming the company engages in "direct, contributory and vicarious infringement" of the record label's music.

Seeqpod is both a search engine and a music player. Users can search through a virtual "library" of more than 8 million songs hosted in other locations, and then stream those they like. Seeqpod claims such streaming is protected fair use under the Digital Millennial Copyright Act, as it provides no files itself.

However WMG, according to the suit filed Jan. 18 in Los Angeles, says Seeqpod is liable for making available on-demand and unauthorized digital public performances. WMG also claims Seeqpod is using music to build up a large enough user base to start selling advertising, without compensating the label its use.

Seeqpod recently released an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing users to place an icon on their main screen that directly connects to the service and allows them to stream tracks from the various sources.

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