U.S. music labels sue Pandora over royalties for golden oldies (pre-1972 recordings)

reuters ^ | Apr 18, 2014 | Joseph Ax

[a fool in paradise]

...The plaintiffs include Vivendi SA's Capitol Records Inc and UMG Recordings Inc, Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp and ABKCO Music & Records Inc...

...Federal copyright law does not apply to pre-1972 recordings, but the plaintiffs say New York state law provides copyright protection for such recordings...

..."If we are required to obtain licenses for pre-1972 sound recordings to avoid liability and are unable to secure such licenses, then we may have to remove pre-1972 sound recordings from our service, which could harm our ability to attract and retain users," the company said in a regulatory filing in February...

[zeugma]

100 year copyrights only serve the interests of the few corporations that own the bulk of the material.

Modern copyright law is immoral and unconstitutional (I don't really give a rat what the Nasgul say)

[Maceman]

There is a radio station in my area that plays mostly pre-rock oriented music from the 1940s and early 50s, with occasional 50s and 60s oldies thrown in.

The station relies (relied) heavily on listener contributions, and the station owner would periodically go on the air begging for donations.

One of the things he talked about in the last few years was that there were large increases in the royalty payments that the station was required to pay.