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The lawsuit alleges that MySpace is a 'vast virtual warehouse' of 'pirate' material where no intellectual property is safe 'not plaintiffs' videos, not plaintiffs' songs, not even songs from the unreleased album "Kingdom Come" by superstar artist Jay-Z'.

Universal is seeking $150,00 damages for each unauthorised posting of a music video or song on the website. It claims that MySpace is both aware of the infringements and makes money from selling advertising alongside the copyright works.

'Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn't be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating

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the content creators,' Universal said in a statement. 'Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace.'

MySpace denied inducing, encouraging or condoning copyright violation.

'MySpace provides an extraordinary promotion platform for artists - from major labels to independent acts - while respecting their copyrights,' a spokeswoman said.

She added that MySpace has been keeping Universal up-to-date with its efforts to protect creators' rights.

'It's unfortunate they decided to file this unnecessary and meritless litigation,' she said.

MySpace believes that it is legally protected under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act which provides 'safe harbour' protection for websites as long as they remove copyrighted works as soon as they receive a takedown notice from the copyright holder. However the fact that it sells advertising alongside the content may undermine its defence, lawyers told the LA Times.