A federal judge in Los Angeles has awarded $6.6 million to several music publishers in a copyright lawsuit over lyrics from such songs as David Bowie’s “China Girl” being posted online without a license.
U.S. District Judge George Wu ruled Tuesday that LiveUniverse Inc. and its founder, Brad Greenspan, should pay $12,500 for each of the 528 songs that were put on various websites without permission from copyright holders.
Wu said LiveUniverse and Greenspan, an early investor in the MySpace social networking site, willfully infringed upon music publishers, including Warner Music Group. Wu also prohibited the defendants from further placing lyrics online without licenses from copyright holders.
Greenspan represented himself and a phone number listed in his name didn’t work.