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My.MP3.com to reopen within weeks

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 08 Sep 2000 11:21 BST

Members of the My.MP3.com service will reportedly be able to access the site again within a few weeks.

According to reports, MP3.com plans to re-launch the service, despite Thursday's ruling against the company which could cost it upto $250m.

My.MP3.com lets users access songs from its database, provided they've already purchased the music legitimately. However, users don't actually copy their own CDs onto the database: instead they must place a CD in their drive to prove they own the music they want copied.

MP3.com has agreed licensing deals with other large music publishers such as Sony and EMI, and continues to insist that it has done nothing wrong. It says users are only getting access to music that they've already paid for. However, the record companies believe that My.MP3.com violates copyright by creating a massive catalogue of their recordings without a suitable license. To get the service running, MP3.com copied thousands of CDs itself.

MP3.com claims that allowing users to listen to their own music is fair and legal, and still hopes to settle with Universal.

Universal was yesterday awarded damages of $25,000 for each CD unlawfully copied, which could amount to $250m. MP3.com recently set aside $150m to settle lawsuits against the major labels.

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