Universal Music sues Grouper and Bolt.com

Universal Music is the first, but undoubtedly not the last, record company to go after video-sharing sites whose users share their music videos without permission. Yesterday Universal sued Grouper and Bolt.com and is seeking up to $150,000 for each instance of infringement plus court costs. Grouper was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment back in August and Bolt.com, whose market share has been rising fast, is privately held. Wwhy Universal didn’t go after slightly bigger fish like Metacafe and Dailymotion isn’t apparent. YouTube and its new parent Google were spared, of course, because of YouTube’s recent deal with Universal and other record labels. This is undoubtedly just the first in many suits by record companies against video-sharing sites, whose uses not only post copyrighted music vidoes but also use copyrighted songs liberally in their own videos.