Universal Music Group filed lawsuits against two video-sharing Web sites Grouper.com and Bolt.com for copyright laws violation and by allowing users to share music clips and other content without permission.
Grouper.com was acquired by Sony pictures in August for $65 million. Universal Music agreed to a content licensing agreement with YouTube and negotiated licensing deals with both Grouper and Bolt, but no agreements were signed
"Grouper and Bolt … cannot reasonably expect to build their business on the backs of our content and the hard work of our artists and songwriters without permission and without compensating the content creators," a Universal spokesman said. The suit is asking for unspecified damages from profits generated by the defendants, or $150,000 per violated copyright work. According to online audience measurement firm comScore, Bolt.com had 8.1 million unique visitors in August while Grouper had just 1.8 million visitors. YouTube had 72.1 million visitors in the same month.
