LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The parent company of Britney Spears' record label filed a lawsuit Thursday against online gossip website PerezHilton.com after the blog leaked recordings from the pop star's new album.
A statement from Zomba Recording, which owns Spears' Jive Records, said the website had illegally obtained and posted material from Spears' new album "Blackout," to be released later this month.
The lawsuit accused the website's owner, Mario Lavandeira, of breach of copyright after 10 completed tracks and unfinished demos from Spears' comeback album appeared on the blog.
"The unauthorized dissemination of recordings is a serious violation of copyright law," said a Zomba spokesperson.
"In addition, posting demos and unfinished songs as if they were final versions is grossly unfair to the artist and misleading to the public."
The lawsuit does not specify an amount of monetary damages being sought but asks that Zomba be awarded real and punitive damages as well as legal costs.
On Wednesday, Jive Records announced it was bringing forward the release date of "Blackout" because of illegal leaks on the Internet.
The album had been due to go on sale in mid-November but will now hit stores on October 30.
"Due to these numerous unauthorized on-line leaks, the label is doing everything possible to prevent and avoid any further illegal distribution of songs including moving up the release date of the album to October 30th," a statement from Jive Records said.
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