Universal Music Group and video sharing site Bolt.com have agreed to a final settlement estimated at $10 million or at least a third of the amount Go Fish is reported to be paying for Bolt. In exchange, as FT reported, UMG will drop its lawsuit against Bolt for copyright infringement. UMG can now concentrate on similar lawsuits against another video sharing site, Grouper, and MySpace; the music company sued the sites last fall, accusing them of allowing users to swap its artists’ music videos without permission and seeking $150 thousand per instance of copyright infringement, plus costs. UMG hopes the Bolt agreement will influence Grouper and MySpace parent News Corp. to come to some accommodation and sign revenue-sharing deals.
—Meanwhile, with the UMG suit out of the way, video search and aggregation site Go Fish completed its $30 million purchase of Bolt.com on Wednesday, Variety reported. As a result, Bolt.com will shift from a user-generated content site to one focused on original content production. Other issues surrounding the deal include:
—Every time Go Fish plays a video of one of UMG’s artists, UMG will receive a small licensing fee, as well as a share of Go Fish’s ad revenue.
—Go Fish has promised to employ a digital filtering technology on Bolt.com within 60 days. Not wasting anytime, Go Fish announced a partnership with copyright monitoring service Audible Magic on Wednesday. Release.
Related:
—Bolt.com Sold To GoFish For $30 Million; Settlement With UMG; Will Pay “Several Million Dollars
—UMG Sues MySpace Claiming Copyright Infringement: News Corp. Unit Says In Compliance
—Universal Music Sues Grouper and Bolt.com; $150K Per Infringement