Gossip sued for posting Britney tracks

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Zomba Recording has filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles, charging the proprietor of PerezHilton.com with illegally posting Britney Spears recordings.

Attorneys for Zomba, which owns the copyrights to Spears' recordings, filed the suit Thursday against the gossip Web site and its proprietor, Mario Lavandeira, the company said.

The suit accuses Lavandeira of violating Zomba's copyrights by posting at least 10 completed tracks and unfinished demos from Spears' upcoming album, "Blackout," during the past three months.

"Blackout" was scheduled to be released Nov. 13, but Spears' label, Jive Records, announced Wednesday it was moving up the release date to Oct. 30 because of the Internet leaks.

Spears is not a party to the lawsuit.

"The unauthorized dissemination of recordings is a serious violation of copyright law," Zomba said in a statement. "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. Instead it asks that Zomba be awarded both real and punitive damages, as well as legal costs, "as the Court deems just and proper."