SiriusXM agrees to pay up to $99M in copyright class action brought by Turtles members
Flo and Eddie, members of the ’60s rock group the Turtles, have been making the rounds on the concert circuit as well as in the courts. Photo by Brian Hineline/Retna Ltd.
SiriusXM has agreed to pay up to $99 million to settle three class action suits claiming the satellite radio service infringed musicians’ copyrights for music recorded before 1972, when federal copyright law began to offer protection.
The suits claimed the artists were entitled to payments for older music because of copyright protections in the states of California, Florida and New York, the New York Times reports. The class actions were filed by a company called Flo & Eddie Inc., which controlled music rights for the band the Turtles, perhaps best known for the 1967 song “Happy Together.”
The proposed settlement, filed in California federal court, mostly affects independent artists and record companies. Major record companies previously settled their own suit against SiriusXM for $210 million.
The settlement amount will depend on whether the plaintiffs win appeals pending in New York and Florida, according to the Times. It will also depend on projections of SiriusXM’s revenue growth, as applied to its agreement to pay a 10-year royalty rate of 5.5 percent to class members.
Related article:
ABA Journal: “State copyright law now gives musicians performance rights”
