Ford And GM Facing Serious Music Piracy Charges

By Santosh

Music and driving have always gone hand in hand. But the days of storing music in your car's in-built hard disk may be numbered, if we are to go by the huge uprising created by the US music industry against Ford and General Motors.

The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) is suing the two automotive giants for copyright infringement since it is possible to rip music from their in-car CD players on to their built-in hard disks.

Also Read: General Motors Sued Over Deaths Linked To Faulty Ignition Switches

Ford calls their system the "Jukebox" while GM's version is known as the "Hard Disk Device", both of which can rip and store music from tracks or entire CDs. The benefits are obvious: there is no need to carry around bulky cases of CDs now, wasting precious cabin space, and the hard drive system actually makes it safer for drivers to access their music, rather than handling CDs which can become a dangerous distraction while on the move.

ford and gm sued for music piracy

However, the AARC is pressing serious charges against the two automakers, seeking 150 percent of royalties owed and "penalty payments" amounting to USD 2,500 for each device manufactured, imported or distributed by the two manufacturers. Yup, it's huge.

If proven illegal, damages are expected to be in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars, as these systems have been prevalent in cars for several years now. Denso and Clarion, suppliers of these infotainment systems have also been included in the lawsuit.

We hope that Ford and GM are able to emerge unscathed from these lawsuits, because we all need safe and easy music accessibility in our cars. If we're allowed to store our tunes on our personal computers, we should be allowed to store them in our cars as well. The eyes of the music industry have the tendency to light up when it comes to royalties and sharing, and this is another example.

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Article Published On: Friday, August 1, 2014, 12:29 [IST]
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