Nonprofit Fails to Trim Music Labels’ Lawsuit Over Digitized 78s

A federal judge rejected a bid from the nonprofit Internet Archive to quickly dismiss any claims from major music labels’ copyright lawsuit it said were based on actions that occurred outside the law’s three-year statute of limitations.

The nonprofit’s argument that some claims from the suit weren’t timely relies on a cease and desist letter that didn’t identify specific sound recordings at issue in the lawsuit, and thus isn’t sufficient to dismiss those claims, Judge Maxine M. Chesney ruled in an May 15 order denying the Internet Archive’s motion to dismiss.

Six record labels including UMG Recordings, Capitol Records LLC, ...