Record labels, Internet Archive settle vinyl-streaming copyright case

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, Sony Music, and other record labels told a California federal court on Monday that they have settled a copyright lawsuit against the nonprofit Internet Archive over its digitization and streaming of vintage vinyl records.

The labels and the Internet Archive said in a filing that they had resolved their dispute and asked the court to pause the case “while the performance of certain settlement terms is pending.”

Spokespeople for the Archive and the music-industry trade group Recording Industry Association of America said that the terms of the settlement were confidential.

The San Francisco-based Internet Archive digitally archives websites, books, audio recordings, and other materials. It compares itself to a library and says its mission is to “provide universal access to all knowledge.”

The nonprofit’s “Great 78 Project” encourages donations of fragile 78-rpm records, which will then be digitized to “ensure the survival of these cultural materials for future generations to study and enjoy,” according to its website.

The labels’ 2023 lawsuit said that the project functioned as an “illegal record store” for more than 4,000 songs by musicians including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday. The Archive denied the allegations and said the project was protected by the copyright doctrine of fair use.

US District Judge Maxine Chesney last year rejected the Archive’s argument that some of the labels’ claims were time-barred.

The Archive lost a separate federal lawsuit last year brought by leading book publishers who said its digital book-lending program violated their copyrights. — Reuters