The Turtles Hit Pandora with Copyright Class Action Lawsuit

On Thursday, the band The Turtles filed a class action lawsuit against the popular online music streaming company Pandora Media Inc. alleging that the company violated copyrights on songs made before 1972.

The Turtles, a rock band from the 1960s, filed the Pandora class action lawsuit in California federal court on the heels of their legal victory against another streaming music provider, Sirius XM Radio Inc. In their class action lawsuit against Pandora, the lead members of the band allege that Pandora indicates on its website that the company must purchase licenses and pay royalties to musicians and owners whose work they stream over the service to online users.

However, according to the plaintiffs, Pandora did not purchase or otherwise obtain licenses from owners to stream music that was fixed before Feb. 15, 1972. “Instead, Pandora has simply chosen to copy tens of thousands of pre-1972 recordings to its servers and transmit and perform them via streaming to its millions of users on a daily basis without any authorization whatsoever,” the Pandora class action lawsuit says. “Pandora fully understands the value of pre-1972 recordings to its business but has ignored the obligation to obtain licenses to exploit those recordings.” According to the class action lawsuit, Pandora’s copyright violations of recordings fixed before 1972 constitute $25 million in damages to the proposed Class Members.

The main issue in the class action lawsuits filed against both Pandora and Sirius was that, although the public performance of songs recorded before 1972 are not covered by federal copyright law, the online radio streaming companies may still be infringing on copyrights when they play them on channels or stations for their users. The plaintiffs alleged in their class action lawsuits against both companies they were cheated out of money for the streaming of their sound recordings, for which they say they are owed royalties. The Pandora class action lawsuit alleges an additional potential copyright violation. The plaintiffs allege that Pandora makes copies of the pre-1972 songs before streaming them.

In response to the allegations a representative for Pandora said in a statement that “Pandora pays publishing royalties on all spins, including pre-1972.” “In addition to being the highest-paying form of radio,” continued the representative, “Pandora is creating large new audiences for tens of thousands of musicians that never had this kind of exposure.” The representative also related that Pandora is open to supporting the full federalization of pre-1972 sound recordings under a technology-neutral approach that provides the same rights and responsibilities with regard to copyright to libraries, music services and consumers.

The plaintiffs are represented by Henry Gradstein, Maryann Marzano and Harvey Geller of Gradstein & Marzano PC and Evan S. Cohen.

The Pandora Pre-1972 Songs Copyright Infringement Class Action Lawsuit is Flo & Eddie Inc. v. Pandora Media Inc., et al., Case No. 14-cv-07648, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.