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The music industry's ongoing copyright and royalty battle took a refreshing turn Wednesday, August 7, when EMI Group PLC filed suit against AOL Time Warner, Inc. over the unpaid use of songs from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies. Filed in US Court for the Southern District of New York, the suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction barring AOL Time Warner from playing songs from MGM classics such as Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz.

AOL Time Warner is parent company of the Warner Music Group, and EMI's ally in the music industry's struggle to contain piracy. For the first time in recent memory, two giants of the music industry are going head-to-head, instead of picking on some hapless startup. EMI claims that AOL Time Warner has been using the songs for promotional purposes on its America Online service and Turner Broadcasting Systems network without authorization from EMI Music Publishing and without remitting royalty payments. "We believe that AOL Time Warner, and a whole bunch of their companies, have been rampantly using our copyrighted material without licensing it or paying for it," said Martin Bandier, chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing.

A disagreement over ownership of the music is at the heart of the lawsuit. Turner Broadcasting acquired the MGM film library in 1986, one of several bold moves by founder Ted Turner that eventually made his company an attractive acquisition target for Time Warner. (Turner became an executive vice president at AOL Time Warner, the ultimate media conglomerate.) EMI Music Publishing had a pre-existing licensing contract with MGM/United Artists for the use of some songs from MGM pictures—a license EMI claims is separate from AOL Time Warner's ownership of the films. The litigation is expected to last into the fall.