Seeqpod files for bankruptcy

Music service Seeqpod has filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of music industry lawsuits that are seeking billions in damages.

Seeqpod acts as a search engine for music, and allows users to play and share music it has indexed. The site doesn’t host the music, but doesn’t differentiate between legal and illegal content, which is where the music industry has its issues. Warner, EMI and Capitol Records have targeted Seeqpod directly, its owners, and services that use the Seeqpod API in its lawsuits.

Seeqpod contends that it is no different than Google, and offers the DMCA in its defense. A small startup with $7 million in funding vs the multi-billion dollar music industry is a David and Golliath battle that would be hard to win though.

Seeqpod is still operating, and the company is offering its platform under license at $5,000 a pop in an effort to raise more money.

Wired has more.