Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other record labels are suing the nonprofit Internet Archive over its streaming collection of digitized music from vintage records.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, claimed the Archive’s “Great 78 Project” functions as an “illegal record store.” The trove includes music by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday among 2,749 sound recordings.
Damages as high as $412 million could result from the alleged infringement, the labels claimed. Representatives for the Internet Archive did not immediately respond.
The San Francisco-based Internet Archive compares itself to a library and says its mission is to “provide universal access to all knowledge.” It already faces a suit from major book publishers over its digital book lending program.
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