Good news for Pandora and its users from the New York legal system: The NY ASCAP rate court has declared that music publishers can't pull digital rights from the performance rights organization. Sound confusing? Don't worry, there's a lot of legalese getting thrown around here. First, some background.
During 2010, several music publishers (including Sony/ATV, EMI, Universal Music Group and EMI) tried to thwart the internet radio service by claiming that ASCAP licensure possessed by Pandora didn't cover what they called "digital rights." However the the companies involved kept their songs within ASCAP but claimed they didn't apply to Pandora because the service didn't have proper licensing. Essentially, Judge Denise Cote ruled that Pandora's license with ASCAP gave it rights to play all of the music in its catalog, at least through 2015 when the contract expires.
"'All' means all," she wrote in her decision, before giving a more complicated explanation. "So whether ASCAP purports to categorize Pandora as an 'applicant' or a 'licensee,' Pandora's right to perform the compositions in the ASCAP repertory extends to all of ASCAP's repertory and ASCAP may not narrow that right by denying Pandora the right to play the songs of publishers who have withdrawn new media licensing rights from certain songs while keeping the songs in ASCAP's repertory to be licensed for performance by other music users."
The decision might stem the arguments between Pandora and music providers for now, but you can expect more finagling and arguments (probably on the same scale as the Time Warner/CBS feud of this summer) in 2015 when a new contract has to be drawn up.
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