MEDIABAY SUES NAPSTER

As if Napster didn’t have enough lawsuits to worry about, MediaBay, Inc. today announced that it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the song-swapping company for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and unfair competition.

MediaBay, which sells spoken audio and nostalgia products, including audiobooks

and old-time radio shows, claims that the radio programs are being traded without permission on Napster. The company has requested that its programs be blocked from trading by the swappery and that Napster completely remove their mislabeled files, especially those that have been renamed "Old Fuddy Duddy Radio Shows."

"We believe that Napster should take a proactive approach toward preventing piracy, instead of waiting for companies like MediaBay to enforce their legal rights," MediaBay President and CEO Michael Herrick conveyed to the media via telegraph. "We note the injunction that the court previously has issued against Napster in a similar lawsuit and believe it is a key step towards leveling the playing field for legitimate downloadable audio companies of any nature, whether it be music or spoken audio. Now, if you’ll excuse my, my velocipede is double-parked and I’m off to a flagpole-sitting contest."

Herrick emphasized that had Napster been trading files not in MP3 format but the acceptable Edison wax cylinder or EWC format, litigation would have been unnecessary.

MediaBay's Radio Spirits subsidiary represents hundreds of rights holders by legitimately licensing their old-time radio copyrights and selling these programs to consumers conveniently and inexpensively in secure downloadable format on its websites. MediaBay offers the secure download of thousands of old-time radio programs, sells the programs at retail outlets and finally answers Abbott and Costello’s eternal question, "Who’s on First?"