Warner Music turns its back on Nokia’s online store

Finnish mobile phone titan Nokia Corporation has high hopes for its new online music service, which enables it to offer music content directly to handset owners without first going through a third-party online portal. However, those hopes have been dealt a sizeable blow this week following news that Warner Music Group has refused to release its content to Nokia’s service. Warner Music Group is to hold back its music content from the Nokia Music Store due to dispute concerning Nokia's Mosh file-sharing service. Credit: Warner Music Group.

Warner Music Group is to hold back its music content from the Nokia Music Store due to dispute concerning Nokia's Mosh file-sharing service. Credit: Warner Music Group.Although Nokia’s service has already secured leading content from the other three members of the music industry’s ‘big four’ – namely Sony BMG, EMI Group, and Universal – Warner Music Group has apparently chosen to withhold its support because of an ongoing dispute it has with Nokia regarding the company’s contentious ‘Mosh’ file-sharing Web site.An Associated Press report cites an unnamed executive "familiar with the negotiations," in revealing that before it announces a willingness to license music to the Nokia Music Service, Warner Music Group first wants the mobile phone company to promise that it will not promote Mosh in conjunction with its fully-paid musical content.Both parties involved in the current standoff have yet to offer any form of official comment regarding the matter. However, Bill Plummer, Nokia’s VP of multimedia, has offered that the talks with New York-based Warner Music Group were progressing both "in good faith and good spirit," and that unauthorised media clips are removed from Mosh within a few hours of the service receiving an official takedown notice. Much like similar contentious content issues thrown up by the likes of NBC and Viacom regarding the illegal posting and sharing of copyrighted video media on Google-owned YouTube, Warner Music Group is believed to be actively seeking better copyright protection from Nokia regarding its owned material appearing illegally on the freestanding user based file-sharing Mosh service.Presently in its beta stage, Mosh allows computer users to upload music, video, and software tailored for Nokia mobile phone platforms, which can then be accessed and shared with everyone on the service. Reports suggest that Warner Music’s concerns revolve around the lack of effectiveness showcased thus far by Mosh’s current copyright filtration system. Notably, the service already contains copyrighted media clips from the likes of Green Day, Linkin Park, 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Rihanna, and Robbie Williams on its pages.