Britney Spears

Attorneys for Zomba Recording LLC, which owns the copyrights to Britney Spears' recordings, filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles today charging the online gossip website PerezHilton.com and its proprietor Mario Lavandeira with illegally obtaining and posting recordings by Spears. The suit accuses Lavandeira of infringing Zomba's copyrights by posting at least 10 completed tracks and unfinished demos from Ms. Spears' upcoming album, "Blackout," over the past three months. "Blackout" was originally scheduled to be released on Nov. 13 but because of internet leaks, Ms. Spears' label Jive Records announced yesterday it was moving up the release date to Oct. 30. Spears herself is not a party to the lawsuit. "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 the amount of monetary damages being sought but rather asks that Zomba be awarded both real and punitive damages as well as legal costs "as the Court deems just and proper." It also asks that Lavandeira be permanently enjoined from any further copyrights infringements.