Spotify, alongside major record labels Universal, Sony, and Warner, are seeking $322 million in damages from the creators of the piracy platform known as Anna’s Archive, through legal action.
Anna’s Archive has gained notoriety as a significant search engine for pirated literature. However, late last year, the site made millions of tracks, sourced from Spotify, publicly accessible. Although these files were subsequently removed, the rights holders managed to document the infringements.
Spotify specialists verified that these specific tracks lacked copy protection mechanisms, indicating that the pirates had bypassed the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system.
The labels are demanding the maximum statutory damages for copyright infringement—$150,000 per each of the 148 works, totaling just over $22 million. Meanwhile, Spotify is seeking $300 million for the circumvention of technical protection measures across 120,000 files.
The plaintiffs describe their requested amount as “extremely conservative,” highlighting that the site hosted approximately 2.8 million tracks in total.
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