In the now-ongoing saga between AnywhereCD and Warner Music Group, the upstart online retailer is now suing the formidable music label. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, trade libel, and business defamation.

This whole thing started when AnywhereCD decided to sell unprotected MP3s of albums along with MP3 + actual CD packages. What's amazing about that is that AnywhereCD is selling albums, not giving them away--yet Warner is still suing them.

We love the sound of this quote from Reuters: "Warner Music, like two of the other major record companies, Universal Music and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, currently only sells its digital music with anti-piracy protection software, known as digital rights management (DRM)." In other words, not like EMI, which is much more progressive about this whole DRM problem and will sell their music online, entirely DRM-free, starting next month.

AnywhereCD sues Warner Music [Reuters via MSN]