{"id":5778,"date":"2016-01-06T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2016\/01\/06\/second-class-action-lawsuit-for-spotify\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T08:04:00","slug":"second-class-action-lawsuit-for-spotify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2016\/01\/06\/second-class-action-lawsuit-for-spotify\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Class-Action Lawsuit For Spotify"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/eb\/Spotify_HQ.jpg\/1024px-Spotify_HQ.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"214\" height=\"144\" \/><br \/>Just after Christmas, Spotify was served with a massive class action lawsuit with potential damages estimated at $150 million.\u00a0  That case, driven by longtime artist rights advocate David Lowery, has  now been followed by a separate suit from Gradstein &amp; Marzanno, an  LA-based firm.  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p>This is a law firm well-versed in the nuances of music copyrights.\u00a0  Gradstein has been successfully litigating on behalf of the Turtles  against Sirius XM and Pandora, specifically over unpaid royalties for  pre-1972 recordings.\u00a0 The back-and-forth in those cases has been whether  non-interactive digital radio should be paying for recordings that  predate federal, US Copyright protection.<\/p>\n<p>Details on second blow against Spotify are sparse at the moment, though  Billboard notes that Gradstein is essentially copy-catting Lowery\u2019s  suit, filed by Michelman &amp; Robinson, LLP.\u00a0 Multiple class actions  wouldn\u2019t necessarily increase the overall liability by Spotify, but  could certainly increase legal expenses and headaches.\u00a0 In some cases,  competing class actions can be consolidated, though multiple cases also  means more litigators, and potentially more thorny issues uncovered.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Spotify\u2019s responses have been measured and terse, with CEO  Daniel Ek and other top-level executives remaining quiet.\u00a0 Through  carefully-crafted statements, Spotify has already indicated that a  reserve fund has been set aside to handle confusing or unresolved  royalty issues, though the Lowery-led litigation hasn\u2019t been  convinced.\u00a0\u201cWe are committed to paying songwriters and publishers every  penny,\u201d said Spotify global head of communications and public policy  Jonathan Prince offered.\u00a0 \u201cUnfortunately, especially in the United  States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rights holders is  often missing, wrong, or incomplete. When rights holders are not  immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able  to confirm their identities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: Digital Music News<br \/>Image License: Creative Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just after Christmas, Spotify was served with a massive class action lawsuit with potential damages&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}