M ajor music labels have filed to sue ISPs for allowing their users to access Listen4Ever.com, a Chinese-based site that permits users to download music from their servers. The labelsi lawsuit seeks for the defendants to block usersi access to Listen4ever.com, alleging that their artistsi copyright is being violated. According to a Reuters article at Yahoo! News:
The recording companies said the only information they have been able to find is that the domain name appears to have been registered to an individual in Tianjin, China. Even the siteis links for contacting operators sends e-mail to an anonymous Yahoo! e-mail account.
The suit states that despite Listen4everis connections to China, the site uses a U.S. domain name, is written entirely in English, appears to target an American audience by focusing on U.S. works and does not appear to feature Chinese music.
"Listen4ever has clearly located itself in China to avoid the ambit of United States copyright law," the suit said.
The suit is the latest in a long-term attack by record labels on Web sites and services that allow trading of digital music files. Such offerings, like Napster and Scour, have been hit with massive lawsuits claiming billions of dollars in damages from violated copyrights.
The labels have been unable to identify the owners of Listen4ever.com. The defendants in this case are AT&T Broadband, Sprint, Advanced Network Services and UUNET. You can find more details about the suit in the Yahoo! News article.