Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music and SBA Music Publishing have filed a suit against Apple. The reason is to share applications in the Russian App Store giving users illegal access to music from their catalogs.

The case concerns three applications currently also available in the Polish App Store: PewPee: Music Player, X Musii Play Music Streaming and Music Downloader & Player. All allow you to play or download music from the Internet. According to the analysis conducted by TorrentFreak, the first application is based on illegal mp3 files stored on their own servers, while the other two simply play YouTube recordings by adding their ads to them.

The lawsuit coincides with the introduction of new anti-piracy regulations in Russia, according to which owners of online stores where applications violating someone's copyright are available can be held responsible if they do not remove them from the store quickly enough. Under the new regulations, if Apple does not agree to remove problematic applications, the government may order local Internet providers to block the App Store completely.

The representative of music labels suing Apple openly admits that they want to "test" the new law in this way. He added that many other companies and organizations are keeping a close eye on the whole case. So if it is successful, a wave of new lawsuits can be expected.

Source: TorrentFreak