[ad_1]
Record label Sony Music Entertainment (SME) is taking USC to court using unlicensed music tracks in promotional videos on social media accounts linked to universities, including USC Athletics.
The lawsuit has allowed 170 licensed recordings on 283 social media videos on 30 different USC-related social media accounts, despite repeated warnings since 2021.
Alongside its subsidiaries, SME claims that Alamo Records, Arista Music, Arista Records, Laface Records, Records Label, Ultra Records and Zomba Recordings “chosen to flaunt copyright laws” and uses music “intentionally, intentionally, without permission.”
“USC’s actions continue to cause great irreparable harm to Sony music, while enriching USC at the expense of Sony music and its artists,” Suit said.
The 170 unauthorized tracks include classic hits such as Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyoncé, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and AC/DC’s “Back It.” Usher featuring Lil John and Rudacris, “It was” by Harry Styles and “My Heart Continues” by Cerry Dion.
Sony Music also accused USC of capitalizing new hits, including charting three weeks #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 just days after “That” By Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar debuted.
Most notably, it was featured in the virus’s “Trojan Arrival” football hype video.
USC Athletics and USC Football have removed the video from university-related accounts.
Sony Cinema Cameras North America collaborated with the Athletics program to produce behind the scenes videos on YouTube.
The music company is asking the university to pay $150,000 for each copyright infringement, totaling over $42 million.
Sony also calls for a declaration that USC has been “intentionally infringed” in copyrighted materials, that the university’s “profits, benefits, benefits and the value of business opportunities received” and that “the lawyer’s “fees and full charges” will be covered.
In a statement to the NBCLA, the university said “USC respects the intellectual property rights of others and responds to these claims in court.”
USC reported $212 million in total athletics revenue for the 2022-2023 academic year. It is unclear how much of that number is net profit.
SME is the second largest music label after the Universal Music Group.
According to the complaint, the record label initially contacted USC in June 2021 about substantial misuse on the university’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok accounts. We rekindled that conversation in January 2023 and then in January 2024.
On August 15, 2024, USC and Sony Music Entertainment “concluded an agreement to sacrifice the law of restrictions so that settlement debate can continue,” extended until January 15, 2025.
A “traffic agreement” is when two parties entering a legal discourse place a time-sensitive suspension of legal deadlines to allow additional time for deliberation or investigation.
When SME offered to extend its fee agreement, USC refused, the lawsuit said.
According to Sony Music, the school was unable to obtain a sync license despite the notification being notified.
[ad_2]Source link
