Following last week's reveal of the "Mega Song," a track featuring the likes of Kanye West, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg and Chris Brown, Megaupload is suing Universal Music Group after the record company had YouTube take down the video promoting the online storage company.
The combination of lyrics like "M-E-G-A/Upload to me today/Send me a file," as well as endorsements from a number of musicians under contract with Universal, proved too much for the recording industry titan, which quickly had the video removed after submitting a copyright claim. Believing that the song was taken down unjustly, Megaupload now taking legal action against Universal and filed suit on Monday (December 12) in U.S. Federal Court, Gizmodo reports, claiming the artists were merely stating opinions.
While Universal's argument is that the video infringes on their property, documents obtained by Techfirm reveal that Megaupload stands behind its wholly original song.
"It appears as though UMG permits recording artists to exercise their views and free speech only when UMG agrees with such speech," reads the complaint. "The type of wrongful behavior alleged against UMG and Defendants herein is exactly the type of behavior that the DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] Sec 512(f) was designed to remedy."
Universal Music has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but despite the company's stance on Megaupload, it appears the label's artists back the project fully. No doubt, more news to come.
At least for now, you can check out the video via an alternate upload down below.
The combination of lyrics like "M-E-G-A/Upload to me today/Send me a file," as well as endorsements from a number of musicians under contract with Universal, proved too much for the recording industry titan, which quickly had the video removed after submitting a copyright claim. Believing that the song was taken down unjustly, Megaupload now taking legal action against Universal and filed suit on Monday (December 12) in U.S. Federal Court, Gizmodo reports, claiming the artists were merely stating opinions.
While Universal's argument is that the video infringes on their property, documents obtained by Techfirm reveal that Megaupload stands behind its wholly original song.
"It appears as though UMG permits recording artists to exercise their views and free speech only when UMG agrees with such speech," reads the complaint. "The type of wrongful behavior alleged against UMG and Defendants herein is exactly the type of behavior that the DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] Sec 512(f) was designed to remedy."
Universal Music has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but despite the company's stance on Megaupload, it appears the label's artists back the project fully. No doubt, more news to come.
At least for now, you can check out the video via an alternate upload down below.
