James Delahunty
18 Sep 2013 13:45
Internet radio service Pandora has gotten an important court decision in its favor as it seeks to stop music publishers from narrowing a license that lets it stream their music.
Universal, EMI and Sony had sought to withdraw new media licensing rights from the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) so that they could negotiate directly with services like Pandora on the licensing of new media.
Pandora went to court, seeking a ruling that the withdrawal by publishers would not affect the ASCAP license, and that the existing antitrust consent decree requires that the publishers license all works through 2015.
ASCAP responded that Pandora was aware that, at any time, the content decree could be narrowed. Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote sided with Pandora in summary judgement.
"ASCAP argues that 'ASCAP repertory' refers only to the rights in music works that ASCAP has been granted by its members as of a particular moment in time," the judge wrote. "Pandora argues that 'ASCAP repertory' is a defined term articulated in terms of 'works' or 'compositions,' as opposed to in terms of a gerrymandered parcel of 'rights.' Pandora is correct."
Kenneth Steinthal, representing Pandora, said they were gratified by the summary judgement, and that the decision would strengthen Pandora's case in related litigation on what constitutes "reasonable" licensing fees.
A trial is scheduled to start on December 4.