Virgin France has been fined £414,147 for music piracy after it was caught nicking popular beat combo star Madonna's single Hung Up to flog on its own website.
The compand once owned by ex-virgin Richard Branson apparently ignored the fact that Warner Music France had inked a deal with France Telecom and Orange to distribute the song online as part of a super soaraway promotion, according to the BBC.
The ruling means that Virgin has to pay €250,000 to each telecom firm and €100,000 to Warner.
It seems that Virgin had to download the song and crack the DRM to flog it from its site.
A spokesVirgin said that it had broken the exclusive agreement in the interest of consumers. There is a bit of a fuss whether or not record companies should release top selling singles under exclusive deals to mobiles and internet firms for their promotional deals.
Story source:
theinquirer.net.
