Tech Shout!

Warner Music Group has dragged Imeem to court, accusing the social networking site of letting users share content from the label without permission. The suit has been filed in US District Court in Los Angeles and seeks an injunction against the site as well as monetary damages.

The lawsuit in question, which was filed by Warner points accusatory fingers at Imeem Inc. for amassing an active user base of 16 million people on the back of “illegal use of ‘free music,’” including Warner Music artists such as Green Day, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Madonna.

Any given music video or song owned by WMG could cost the site as much as $150,000 (£76,000) if the courts rule in favor of the label. In addition, Warner also accuses Imeem of doing little towards stopping its users from sharing content and is actively participating in the infringement.

“Imeem itself directly engages in much of the infringing conduct by duplicating, adapting, distributing and performing plaintiff’s works through Imeem’s own servers,” the lawsuit mentions.

In its complaint, Warner claims Imeem invites “millions of users to flock to its website to copy, adapt, distribute and perform unlicensed sound recordings and music videos”.

Imeem is not the first social networking site to be struck by a lawsuit by a record level company. In November 2006, Universal sued MySpace in November after negotiations between the two companies stalled.

Imeem launched in March 2006 and has about 16 million users.