C&D letters sent to Apple, MS; $200b suit threatened

Apple along with other technology giants such as Microsoft, Adobe, and RealNetworks were sent a cease & desist on Friday demanding they integrate Media Rights Technologies' (MRT) proprietary technology to prevent music streams from being "ripped." While most intellectual property lawsuits focus on infringement, the novel approach taken by MRT may be a first in the industry, according to AppScout. MRT claims that Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law by President Clinton, and invoked in the Grokster decision, forces companies to comply with the act and provide copy-control technologies. MRT, which took its technology to Microsoft but was blown off, says it has given each company 10 days to respond and will file lawsuits against those companies totaling more than $200 billion dollars.

Devices makers such as Apple, Real, and Microsoft are deliberately designing their players with loopholes to allow copyright infringement, according to MRT representatives quoted by the publication.

MRT says it is acting on behalf on BlueBeat.com, which has a legal obligation to protect its content. According to the report, BlueBeat was recently hit with a $150 million cease-and-desist letter by the RIAA, when the copyright protection on its content was "accidently" circumvented in an upgrade to Windows Media Player.

MRT says that the suits could also extend to companies like YouTube and CNN, which also use the infringing technology.

Filed under: Apple