Culver City Observer -

Culver Company Sued Over Copyrights

Fullscreen, based at the Culver Studios, has been sued in Federal Court by the National Music Publishers’ Association.

The suit accuses Fullscreen of engaging in “willful copyright infringement” for using music videos without obtaining licenses or paying royalties.

National Music Publishers’ Association represents American music publishers and songwriters.

David Israelite, NMPA’s president and chief executive, said in a statement e-mailed to the press, “Fullscreen’s success and growth as a digital business is attributable in large part to the prevalence and popularity of its unlicensed music videos. We must stop the trend of ignoring the law, profiting from someone else’s work, then asking forgiveness when caught.”

Fullscreen supplies thousands of YouTube channels. The content is comprised primarily of cover song videos, according to the lawsuit.

YouTube manager George Strompolos founded Fullscreen in January 2011 and its website claims to generate “over 2.5 billion monthly video views and reaches over 200 million.

Songs by Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, and Katy Perry are noted in the case as being rebroadcast by Fullscreen.