s the bitter copyright dispute between MP3.com and the Universal Music Group enters its final phase this week, the Internet music start- up has been joined in a key argument by a group of recording artists led by Don Henley, a onetime Universal artist, and Sheryl Crow, who is currently under contract to Universal, the world's largest record company.
The group, called the Recording Artists Coalition, filed a brief last week with United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, hoping to avert the possibility that Universal artists — and possibly all recording artists — will have to file suit against their respective labels challenging copyright claims that could be validated by his ruling on the MP3.com case.
Judge Rakoff has already ruled that MP3.com willfully infringed Universal's copyrights with MP3.com's service My.MP3.com. The service lets users listen to music from any computer after indicating that they possess the original CD or have purchased it through an online vendor. The judge ordered MP3.com to pay $25,000 for each of Universal's copyrighted sound recordings included in the service.
At issue is just how many recordings that is. Universal has put the number as high as 10,000. MP3.com argues that it is close to zero.
And that is where the artists come in. While no one disputes that Universal owns the copyrights to its sound recordings, MP3.com has challenged the form of the certificates Universal filed with the copyright office.
Like other record labels, Universal filed those copyrights as "works made for hire." That designation has long been a source of friction between artists and record labels, because unlike other copyrights that return to the artist after 35 years under the copyright law, the underlying copyright of a work made for hire never reverts to its original author.
If Judge Rakoff accepts MP3.com's argument that sound recordings are not works made for hire, the company's liability could be minimal. If he supports Universal's contention that recordings are indeed works made for hire, not only would Universal receive significant damages, but it would gain new leverage in its debate with musicians.
The artists are worried Universal would use such a judgment in future battles. But some legal experts say he will try to avoid a decision on the label-artist hot potato, which has little to do with the substance of the MP3.com case.
