Copyright Act allowed jurors to award as much as $150,000 in damages for nearly every song infringed, but after nine days of trial and just an hour of deliberations, they awarded only $1,000 each for 167 songs and $750 each for 30 others. That trial began in March 2020 in a Manhattan federal courthouse, just days before New York City became the U.S. But he refused to issue an injunction and left the issue of damages for a jury to decide at a trial. In 2018, the judge overseeing the case sided with publishers and ruled that Wolfgang’s had indeed infringed the copyrights to most of the songs. They claimed that Wolfgang’s had infringed the copyrights to the underlying compositions for 197 different songs by streaming recordings of them being performed in concert. The current case was filed in 2015 by a slew of publishers, including big indies like ABKCO and peermusic and units of Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Another case, a proposed class action by artists whose music appeared on the service, only recently wrapped up in January. The company was sued in the 2000s by The Doors, Carlos Santana and many other recording artists, eventually resulting in a confidential settlement with all three major labels to cover sound recording copyrights. Unsurprisingly, Wolfgang’s has faced copyright litigation for years. The service was created by acquiring the archives of classic concert promoters, including the legendary Bill Graham. Once labeled by the Wall Street Journal as “what may be the most important collection of rock memorabilia and recordings ever assembled,” Wolfgang’s allows users to stream audio and video from concerts by The Rolling Stones, The Who, the Grateful Dead and hundreds of others. The court also overturned a ruling that held Wolfgang’s owner Bill Sagan personally liable for the damages. Worse yet for the music companies, the appeals court actually overturned a separate ruling that required Wolfgang’s to cover the $2.5 million they spent in legal expenses bringing the lawsuit. “The publishers failed to persuasively draw any connection between the potential impact of the COVID pandemic and the specific damages awarded,” the court wrote, “or explain why it would have been easier for a rushed jury to award damages on the lower side of the scale, as opposed to in the middle or on the higher end.” But in Thursday’s decision, the Second Circuit ruled that the publishers were stuck with the smaller damages award. On appeal, the publishers had argued that the verdict was “rushed and ill-considered” because it came in March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was looming over New York City and the jurors. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that Wolfgang’s clearly infringed the copyrights to nearly 150 songs by making the decades-old footage available online for avid rock fans.īut crucially, the court also upheld a jury’s verdict that the publishers were entitled to just $189,000 in damages – a figure that was nearly the minimum amount allowed by law, and vastly less than the $30 million the publishers had demanded. Upholding a decision by a lower judge, the U.S. Irving Azoff's PRO Sues a Dozen-Plus Radio Stations for Not Paying Royalties: 'Caught Red-Handed'
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |