According to media reports, EMI claims that AOL Time Warner has been using songs from films, such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Singing in the Rain”, for promotional purposes and playing them on its Turner Broadcasting Systems network and America Online internet service without authorisation.
United Artists and MGM/UA Entertainment sold the catalogue of songs in question to CBS in 1982 but retained a licence for limited, royalty-free use of certain songs. CBS was then sold to another company which was acquired by EMI in 1989.
MGM/UA Entertainment was subsequently bought by Turner Broadcasting Systems, which then merged with Time Warner in 1996. As a result, the MGM film library is now owned by AOL Time Warner.
EMI claims, however, that the rights to royalty-free use of the songs do not extend to all of AOL Time Warner’s operations.
The lawsuit comes at a time when recording companies are forming alliances against copyright infringement resulting from file-swapping technologies.