Hip-hop mixtapes site Spinrilla was hit by a copyright-infringement lawsuit coordinated by the RIAA in February this year, filed on behalf of Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Bros, Atlantic and LaFace Records.
The lawsuit claimed to have identified more than 21k copyrighted recordings available on the site, but now Spinrilla has hit back in its counterfiling, portraying itself as a partner to the labels rather than a villain.
“Plaintiffs and Defendants have been cooperating for years in a variety of ways to successfully prevent and remove unauthorised music from Spinrilla.com,” claims the filing, as reported by TorrentFreak.
It goes on to suggest that it took the labels up on their suggestion of using Audible Magic’s technology to filter out copyrighted music, and adds in the claim that in many cases, it had labels’ permission to make music available, for marketing purposes.
“In fact, both before and after Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit, Plaintiffs’ have requested that Spinrilla host, distribute, and promote Plaintiffs’ music on Spinrilla’s properties.”
It reminds us of old arguments about label marketing teams pushing MP3s to music blogs that the legal teams would then demand be taken down, but we’ll see how this latest variant plays out in court.
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