Google, Apple, Sony, Rdio, Songza, Slacker, Grooveshark Targeted With Pre-1972 Music Lawsuits
[UPDATE 2] Google, Apple's Beats, Sony Entertainment, Rdio, Songza, Slacker and Escape Media Group (the parent company of Grooveshark) have been served with simultaneously filed lawsuits alleging exploitation of pre-1972 sound recordings without license or payment. The attorneys, on behalf of Zenbu, the owners of recordings from The Flying Burrito Brothers, Hot Tuna, the New Riders of the Purple Sage and others - have requested class action status for the lawsuits.
The seven new filings follow similar lawsuits filed by Flo & Eddie (The Turtles) against SiriusXM, Pandora and others over a loophole that many music services have used to not make the usual payments for use of recordings released prior to 1972. Thus far, the majority of the court findings have favored the musicians.
Damages for each of these lawsuits could each be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
SiriusXM stock was down somewhat after the ruling. You can follow the overall market reaction on Hypebots' music stock tracker in the lower right column of the site.
