Recording Industry Sues 'Next Napster' Companies

SAN FRANCISCO — Major music labels and movie studios moved to protect their products Wednesday, suing for copyright infringement the makers and distributors of a Napster stepchild program that lets users freely trade pirated music, movies and software on the Internet.

Plaintiffs including MGM Studios, Columbia Pictures, and the Sony Corp. (SNE) and AOL Time Warner Inc.’s (AOL) Warner music groups, filed suit late Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.

The companies claim that a file-sharing program used by Grokster, MusicCity networks and Consumer Empowerment BV “developed and control a network largely dedicated to the repeated and exploitative unauthorized distribution and reproduction of plaintiff’s protected works.”