Universal Music Group and Bolt Announce Settlement

Universal Music Group and Bolt Announce Settlement

NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and Bolt Inc. jointly announced today that they have reached an out-of-court settlement resolving the lawsuit brought by UMG against Bolt last year. UMG had sued Bolt for copyright infringement in connection with the unauthorized use of UMG's video and music content on the Bolt website. Recently, Bolt announced it would be acquired by GoFish which has been a licensed partner of UMG for the past two years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bolt has agreed to provide UMG with a multi-million dollar payment for damages for past infringement, against a percentage of the value of the company. In addition, Bolt has also agreed to introduce filtering technologies within the next 60 days ensuring that its users can no longer exploit the music and videos of UMG artists and songwriters without appropriate payment and consent.

"We are pleased to have resolved this litigation in an amicable manner and that Bolt has recognized our rights under the law," stated Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group. "Moving forward, we and our artists will now be paid for the use of our music and videos on the site. While our preference is to work out similar arrangements with other user generated sites so that we can bring our music to the widest possible audience, we will continue to be vigilant in protecting our rights and those of our artists and songwriters from services that unreasonably expect to build businesses on the backs of our content and hard work without permission and fair compensation."

"Bolt's creative community is the perfect audience for UMG's world class library of music and videos," added Aaron Cohen, CEO of Bolt. "Together we can create innovative Made-for-Internet programming that aligns UMG's talented artists with Bolt's coveted user base."

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations.

Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, Universal South Records and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, a new media and technologies division, and Universal Music Mobile.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

Source: Universal Music Group

CONTACT: Universal Music Group, +1-212-331-2585

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