Arista, Sony Sue Myxer in Florida

Myxer, one of the companies that pioneered free, ad-funded ringtones, is now on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

Arista Records and Sony Music filed a suit against the Boca Raton-based company with a federal court in California. The suit has now expanded to South Florida in an attempt by the plaintiffs to gain access to additional documents from Myxer and its investor Morgenthau Venture partners.

The original suit in California alleges that Myxer is guilty of “massive and continuing copyright infringement,” Bizjournals.com reports. Myxer of course denies any wrongdoing, saying that it removes any copyrighted material users upload to the site as soon as it becomes aware of it.

The labels, however, allege that “Myxer brazenly seeks to usurp and destroy the emerging and valuable ringtone market” by offering for free the same ringtones that the labels and their distribution partners sell on other sites.

Treating Myxer like any other defendant in one of the music industry’s file-sharing suits, this one seeks $150,000 per offense and an injunction to prevent Myxer to sell any copyrighted material in the future.

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