By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; D01

Popular social-networking Web site MySpace was slapped with its first copyright-infringement lawsuit yesterday, by Universal Music Group, alleging that the site enables "rampant" unauthorized copying and distribution of its artists' songs and videos.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said "[n]o intellectual property is safe in the MySpace world of infringement -- not plaintiffs' videos, not plaintiffs' songs, not even songs from the unreleased album 'Kingdom Come' by superstar artist Jay-Z," scheduled to go on sale next week.

MySpace denied wrongdoing and said it would fight the lawsuit.

Universal Music is seeking damages of $150,000 per violation and a permanent injunction barring MySpace from allowing further copying or distribution of its copyrighted material.

Concern is growing in the entertainment industry over the widespread use and distribution of digital material on Web sites such as MySpace and YouTube. Big media companies that own content -- movie studios, television networks and other entertainment companies -- are trying to strike a balance between the publicity and exposure such Web sites provide and the potential financial costs of letting people give away their copyrighted material.

Concern over the erosion of intellectual property rights has hastened commercial deals between some popular social Web sites and major media companies. It has also accelerated deployment of technology that automatically removes unauthorized content from Web sites, a task that is particularly difficult for large sites such as YouTube and MySpace, which allow users to post all kinds of content to their sites.

Universal has negotiated some content-sharing deals with MySpace. The company has also been trying for five months to negotiate an agreement with MySpace to take down unauthorized content, said a source close to Universal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the pending lawsuit. However, MySpace has not expeditiously removed the material as required by digital copyright law, said the source.

MySpace, which lists more than 140 million member profiles, said it takes steps to prevent unauthorized music from being posted on its site, and is in full compliance with the law.

Separately, MySpace announced yesterday that it is testing a tool that allows copyright holders to flag videos posted on its site that contains content that has not been authorized for distribution. Once a video is removed, the tool blocks users from posting the same video. MySpace also has licensed technology that scans audio recordings for copyright infringement before they are posted.

"We have been keeping [Universal] closely apprised of our industry-leading efforts to protect creators' rights, and it's unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation," a spokeswoman for MySpace said in an e-mailed statement. "We provide users with tools to share their own work -- we do not induce, encourage, or condone copyright violation in any way."