Universal Music describes a new lawsuit over VH1's Masters of the Mix as a "cut-and-dry
copyright infringement case," but modest trappings aside, there's a few reasons to pay
attention to this one.The complaint was filed in California against Je T'Aime Media Group,
the show's producer. Interestingly, VH1 and its corporate parent Viacom are not named as
defendants. Although live DJ music has somewhat been overlooked on the copyright front
for many years, the lawsuit takes issue with a reality television program where disk jockeys
compete for $250,000 in prize money and the title of vodka company Smirnoff's official DJ
for a year.
Universal Music says the producer of Masters of the Mix properly licensed sound recordings
and musical compositions for the first two seasons of the show, but failed to do so for the
third season. That season, which aired in 2013, is said to have used at least 93 of Universal's
compositions including songs from Daft Punk, Kanye West and The Roots and 115 of its
sound recordings including works by Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani and Nirvana.
"Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works are fundamental to the production and success of the
Show," says the complaint. Besides seeking up to $150,000 for each copyright infringed,
Universal is making common law misappropriation and conversion claims over pre-1972
recordings by artists such as James Brown, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. In the past
year, the record industry has gone after Sirius XM and Pandora over pre-1972 music, and
one of the responses has been that rights-holders have long given television broadcasters
(as well as other music users) a pass on royalty collection on the older music. No longer,
it seems. Until the issue is settled, pre-1972 music is a legally hot one, as the latest lawsuit
evidences.
Source: THR