Sony Music is counter-suing two musicians for the use of copyrighted images without approval. Sony claims that the artists are “pirating” their album covers, some 35 years old. The musicians, John Lyon and Paul Collins have filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony claiming that the music giant is not “systemically honoring termination notices.”
Under current law, “copyright termination allows authors to reclaim their works after 35 years.” Still, Sony claims copyright infringement and accuses the attorney of secondary copyright infringement because “they are using the album artwork to recruit other clients.” The attorney for the two musicians responded to Sony’s counter-suit, saying,”…this is nothing more than a hollow effort to intimidate the class representatives and deter other recording artists from seeking their termination rights and damages for infringement in the class action.”
– Excerpt from an article for Billboard by Eriq Gardner. Read the full article here.
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