Major Record Labels Sue Russian Site Over Piracy

Three of the world’s top record labels have decided to file legal proceedings against VKontakte, Russia’s most popular social media site. The site is accused of facilitating in a mass scale of copyright infringement.

Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music filed individual lawsuits against the popular social site, seeking more than $1 million in damages.

Countless requests were sent to VKontakte to remove the copyrighted material but despite the effort, huge quantities of unauthorized media continued to be hosted on the website.

With over 100 million active users, VKontakte allows individuals  to upload and share music files with one another. This has resulted in thousands of pirated music files being distributed without the permission of copyright holders.

The major labels are also asking for VKontakte to implement technology such a fingerprinting in hopes of being able to delete and prevent copyrighted material from being re-uploaded.

“We have repeatedly highlighted this problem over a long period of time. We have encouraged VK to cease its infringements and negotiate with record companies to become a licensed service. To date the company has taken no meaningful steps to tackle the problem, so today legal proceedings are being commenced,” said Frances Moore of IFPI.