Suit Filed For Pre-’72 Recordings

The owner of recordings by Hot Tuna, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, and The Flying Burrito Brothers filed seven lawsuits against several streaming service operators including Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Sony Corp. for using songs recorded before 1972 without permission.

Photo: Larry Hulst

The Oriental Theater, Denver, Colo.

Zenbu Magazines seeks class-action status for the suits, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, accusing the services of copying thousands of recordings onto their servers and distributing or playing them without permission.

The suit seeks money the companies made from the use of the recordings, plus punitive damages and a restraining order preventing them from using the music without licensing and paying for it in the form of performance royalties or licensing fees.

Since sound recordings weren’t given protection under federal copyright law until 1972, those made before that time are covered only by a smattering of state laws.

The founders of The Turtles won a victory in September in their suit against Sirius XM Radio when a federal judge ruled that the satellite radio provider violated California law by “performing” the band’s songs without authorization. Lawmakers in Washington are considering a broad overhaul of national copyright law, including the oldies issue.

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