SAN DIEGO – An entertainer alleges he is owed for the online streaming of his sound recordings and has filed a class-action suit.
Ponderosa Twins Plus One and Ricky Spicer filed a complaint individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated on Sept. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against iHeartMedia Inc., Spotify USA Inc., Google Inc., Apple Inc., Pandora Media Inc., Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.), Deezer Inc. and Soundcloud Inc. alleging copyright infringement and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff was a member of the group Ponderosa Twins Plus One, which recorded a song called "Bound" featuring the plaintiff as a lead vocalist. The suit states the song was recorded before February 1972, the date which copyright law provides automatic license and royalty rates for recordings. The plaintiff claims the defendants are using his and other class members works without permission or compensation.
The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to obtain licenses in order to reproduce, perform, distribute, or exploit the original work; misappropriated the copyrighted work for their own commercial benefits; failed to arrange and pay the required royalties and retained money that should have been provided to plaintiff.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seek judgment against defendants, certification of class-action suit, damages, disgorgement of all profits, constructive trust, interest, costs of suit, attorneys’ fees and other relief that may be entitled. He is represented by Jennifer Liakos, Hunter J. Shkolnik, Paul J. Napoli, Paul B. Maslo and Salvatore C. Badala of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC in El Segundo.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-02258