EMI files lawsuit against EA

According to a recent Reuters report, music company EMI has filed a federal lawsuit against Electronic Arts. The suit, which was filed in New York on Wednesday, alleges that a number of EA's recent sports titles feature songs that "embody copyrighted musical compositions that EMI owns, co-owns, administers, or otherwise controls."

EMI claims in its suit that EA sought licenses for a number of songs throughout 2003 but went ahead and released games featuring them before the licenses had been granted. EMI further states that EA renewed its license requests in mid-February of this year and responded with a letter claiming that its rights had been infringed, which led to a withdrawal of all of its outstanding license offers. EMI is seeking damages in the form of a percentage of EA's profits on the games concerned, which it believes will amount to "tens of millions of dollars."

"This entire lawsuit is related to a single song that samples lyrics from another song," reads a statement from Electronic Arts. "Our use of that song was licensed directly from the artist. We have agreements for every song used in our games."

We'll bring you more information on this story as soon as it becomes available.