Music industry sues search engine for MP3s MP3skull

The RIAA, representing the US music industry, has filed a lawsuit against search engine MP3skull. According to the RIAA, the music file search engine is widely infringing copyrights.

According to the indictment, a Russian woman has been summoned along with ten unknown persons, ArsTechnica writes. The hosting company that MP3skull uses, Webzilla, has also been subpoenaed.

The RIAA states that it is very clear that MP3skull is widely infringing copyrights by providing links to illegal music files, partly because the administrators would not comply with takedown requests, also known as dmca notices. In addition to damages, the organization is demanding $150,000, or more than 140,000 euros, for each illegally offered music track. The RIAA also demands that the domain name be confiscated and that registrars and hosting companies no longer do business with the administrators.

MP3skull is yet another provider of illegal content that has come under the RIAA’s crosshairs. The organization previously filed lawsuits against MegaUpload, Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus, Limewire, IsoHunt and Grokster.

MP3skull itself does not host MP3 files, but links to content that can be found elsewhere on the Internet. The site claims to have indexed millions of MP3s. The site states in the disclaimer that users must remove the music files from their system after listening.