Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle; Internet Archive ends legal battle with record labels over historic recordings
"The case, UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Internet Archive, targeted the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project, an initiative to digitize more than 400,000 fragile shellac records from the early 20th century. The collection includes music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and has been made available online for free public access.
Record labels including Universal, Sony Music Entertainment and Capitol Records had sought $621 million in damages, arguing the Internet Archive’s streaming of these recordings constituted copyright infringement.
The lawsuit drew widespread attention from musicians and preservationists."
