Reports have emerged that music streaming service Spotify are being sued due to violating two patents owned by PacketVideo, those of you with music magazine subscriptions such as The Wire may be interested to know.
Spotify has been hugely successful in the UK as it allows music fans to listen to music they want for free. As the music is only streamed, it discourages listeners from illegally downloading as they still have access to all their favourite music but do not own the songs.
This gives listeners the option of “trying before buying”. If you listen to an album and love it, you can then go out and buy it without having to worry.
Wire magazine subscribers probably enjoy Spotify’s wide range of alternative music available – you can be listening to death metal one minute and pop rock the next.
The service launched to US listeners just two weeks ago, but has already grabbed attention for the wrong reasons. PacketVideo filed legal papers in both California and the Netherlands claiming that Spotify had infringed two patents and that they were taking the “necessary action to protect its intellectual property and prevent the misuse of its patents.”
Spotify have released a statement saying: “PacketVideo is claiming that by distributing music over the internet, Spotify (and by inference any other similar digital music service) has infringed one of the patents that has previously been acquired by PacketVideo. Spotify is strongly contesting PacketVideo’s claim.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a long series of tech companies pitting themselves against each other. It’s not a great start for the company who were supposed to take the world by storm with their innovative new approach to accessing music.
Whatever happens, we hope that we’ll still be able to read about our favourite music with our Wire magazine subscription and listen to it through Spotify!
Subscribe and save on a Wire magazine subscription today.
Posted by Tori Gibson.
