Universal Music Group is taking a strong legal stance against companies that have been sending music to inmates in correctional facilities across the country.
Centric Group and their subsidiary Keefe Group specialize in sending packages to prisoners. Centric's home page describes their services:
Today we employ more than 3,000 people, have offices nationwide and our annual sales exceed $900 million. Our companies include Keefe Group, the nation’s leading supplier of food, personal care products, electronics and clothing to the correctional commissary market.
UMG alleges that music being sent by Centric includes copyrighted work of artists, including James Brown, Eminem, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
UMG has not been financially compensated for the music leading them to file a lawsuit.
"Defendants boast on their website that their business 'was developed to eliminate contraband,' yet the infringing copies of Plaintiffs' sound recordings and musical compositions, in which Defendants unlawfully transact and from which they unjustly profit, are contraband personified," states a lawsuit filed by UMG. "Mixtapes are a form of recorded music in which DJs combine (or 'mix') tracks, often recorded by different artists, onto a single CD, sometimes creating overlaps and fades between songs, and/or reflecting a common theme or mood. Such so-called 'mixtapes,' unless authorized by the copyright owner or owner of corresponding state law rights, are nothing more than collections of infringing, piratical compilations of copyrighted or otherwise legally protected sound recordings and copyrighted musical composition."
Universal is demanding maximum statutory damages in the amount of $150,000 to each copyrighted work infringed, according to Billboard. The plaintiff also is asserting state unfair competition claims and seeking the imposition of a constructive trust, restitution of unlawful proceeds, punitive damages and more.
Source: Billboard
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