EMI Sues InfoSpace For $100 Million In Ringtone Revenue

EMI Publishing has has filed a $100 million lawsuit against ringtone giant InfoSpace, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In a complaint filed Jan. 12 in U.S. District Court in New York EMI alleged that InfoSpace has been underpaying royalties and selling ringtones for which they hold no licensing. The complaint also states that the InfoSpace defendants "have engaged in a deliberate effort to frustrate and obstruct the audit rights held by plaintiffs pursuant to license agreements."

InfoSpace is the largest of a new breed of middlemen who re-licence content to cell phone companies like Verizon.  More lawsuits are sure to follow as ringtones and music-based cell products have become huge profit centers for labels at rate so rapid that confusion and conflict is inevitable. 

This may also be a last grab for cash by EMI prior to the inevitable upheavel in sector as companies like InfoSpace begin to assert an October US Copyirght Office decision that would include ringtones in compulsary liscences at much lower rates.