{"id":159048,"date":"2026-08-07T03:59:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/159048\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T03:59:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:59:52","slug":"umg-sony-music-file-copyright-lawsuit-against-canadian-streaming-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/159048\/","title":{"rendered":"UMG, Sony Music File Copyright Lawsuit Against Canadian Streaming App"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMajor labels are cracking down on an illegal streaming app in Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSony Music Group and Universal Music Group will begin legal proceedings in Canada against the developers of Musi, a streaming app that sources music from YouTube without the authorization of artists. The app, which has been deemed \u201cparasitic\u201d by the majors, features the same content as YouTube and YouTube Music, but with fewer or no advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/music-publishers-elon-musk-end-social-media-copyright-suit\/\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1567327082-e1767987056183.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 24: A photo illustration of the new Twitter logo on July 24, 2023 in London, England. Elon Musk has revealed today a new logo for Twitter, which constitutes the letter 'X' as part of a rebrand of the company. (Photo Illustration by Dan Kitwood\/Getty Images)\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAlthough it was pulled from Apple\u2019s App Store in 2024 following a slew of copyright claims and infringements, users who previously installed the app can still access it, and the majors are now stepping in to crack down on its activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has teamed up with Music Canada, its local national group representing the three majors in Canada, to represent both labels in the action. They claim that Musi is illegally making copyrighted material available to the public and deliberately circumventing technical protections that would normally protect such content on YouTube from theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services,\u201d says IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley. \u201cMusi and similar illegal services have no place in today\u2019s music ecosystem which is built on the premise of empowering innovation through licensing. This legal action is an important step, and we hope it will be further supported by effective, direct action from the mobile app stores and the music services being directly exploited by these apps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe platform has charged users for subscriptions and advertising models, making a profit by circumventing legitimate competition, they argue, and simultaneously depriving artists of certain royalties and income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThis litigation sends a clear message that services designed to circumvent platform protections and exploit music without authorisation are not legitimate businesses,\u201d says Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers. \u201cThe industry will continue taking coordinated action to protect artists and fans from unlawful exploitation. Our goal is simple: ensure artists are paid when their music is played \u2014 and shutting down parasitic apps is one way to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCopyright has been a top priority for the Canadian music business, with major labels and music companies taking action. Earlier this year, Music Canada secured a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ca.billboard.com\/business\/streaming\/music-canada-blocks-youtube-stream-ripping-sites\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first-of-its-kind court order<\/a>\u00a0from the Federal Court of Canada to block popular YouTube stream-ripping sites like Y2Mate, YTMP3 and Savefrom, which count over 1.7 million monthly users and are known for facilitating illegal music downloads. \u201cI believe artists should be paid when their music is played. To create the best possible environment for that to happen, we have to shut down sites that promote stealing music,\u201d said Rogers of the groundbreaking victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCanadians have also tightened the knot on copyright protection in the face of AI, which has been the catalyst for new concerns and cases of infringement, specifically with unlicensed music borrowing from copyrighted music. Music Publishers Canada recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ca.billboard.com\/business\/legal\/music-publishers-canada-ai-copyright-case\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made a landmark intervention<\/a>\u00a0in a federal case regarding generative AI and copyright laws, putting forward the idea that only a human can be the author of copyright, and CEO Margaret McGuffin calling it \u201cimperative\u201d that Canadian copyright laws respect creators and encourage human expression in the face of AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis story was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.billboard.com\/business\/legal\/ifpi-music-canada-musi-lawsuit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Billboard Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubpass.co\/billboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786075192_14_2HpFicp.png\" alt=\"Billboard VIP Pass\" style=\"max-width: 100%;height: auto\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major labels are cracking down on an illegal streaming app in Canada. Sony Music Group and Universal Music&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,51222,1823,10763,51223,2167,51224,2223,51225],"class_list":["post-159048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-copyright","tag-international","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal-news","tag-music-news","tag-sony-music-group","tag-streaming","tag-universal-music-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}