MUMBAI: Internet radio giant- Pandora is being sued by some big record labels for copy infringement. According to reports, the company has allegedly used songs that were recorded before 1972, but has not paid their licensing fees.
The labels include divisions of Universal, Sony and Warner, who argue that although songs like ‘Hey Jude’ (The Beatles), ‘I Got You’ (James Brown) and ‘Respect’ (Aretha Franklin) are not covered by federal copyright law; they are protected by common law in several states, including New York.
The lawsuit, which has been filed in New York state court, claims that every year services like Pandora Media Inc. deprive labels and artistes of tens of millions of dollars. It also suggests that the internet radio’s negation to pay for using the recordings is "fundamentally" unfair.
A number of these services stream songs for stations like "50s Rock n Roll" and "Golden Oldies", without really paying royalties to the respective labels. Pandora is known to randomly stream songs according to genres or artistes like "’60s Oldies" and "Motown".
Addressing the situation, the California based company stated that it is confident of its legal position and is hoping to resolve the matter quickly.
In a similar case last year, SoundExchange, which is a non-profit organisation that collects digital royalties for artistes, filed a lawsuit against satellite radio company Sirius XM Holdings Inc. The case is still ongoing.