Spanish Radio Stations Hit With Copyright Suit By Puerto Rican Publisher And Performance Right Society

Latin American Music Co., Inc. v. Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc.. No. 13-cv-1526 (S.D.N.Y. filed March 7, 2013).

Plaintiffs are a Puerto Rican publisher and a performing rights society (ACEMLA) alleging that the owners of several Spanish-language terrestrial radio stations (with websites that simultaneously stream the stations' content over the internet) are playing Plaintiffs' songs over the radio/web without a license.  An injunction is sought.

ISPs in UK Ordered To Block Access to BitTorrent Sites

EMI Records Ltd. v. British Sky Broadcasting Ltd., 2013 ILRC 1337 (High Ct. of Justice Chancery Div. 2013) [link].

The UK's main retail ISPs were ordered to take measures to block or impede their customers' access to three peer-to-peer file-sharing websites (KAT, H33T and Fenopy) due to infringement.  Plaintiffs were record companies.  The Court concluded: (i) that UK users of the websites who have accounts with the Defendants have infringed, and are continuing to infringe, the plaintiffs copyrights by copying the Claimants' sound recordings on a large scale; (ii) that users of the Websites infringe the plaintiffs' copyrights both by copying and by communication to the public; and (iii) the operators of the Websites infringe the plaintiffs' copyright.  The plaintiffs' application was granted.

Sound Recordings; Music Publishing CLE