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from the I-want-to-ride-my-bicycle,-I-want-to-ride-my-bike dept.
Peloton's countersuit against music publishers over song copyrights just got thrown out:
A US district judge has squashed Peloton's counter lawsuit today, against music publishers who claimed the fitness company violated rights to use select artists' music in its workout videos. Peloton hosts live cycling and running classes that are performed to a curated playlist, but the National Music Publishers' Association claimed that because Peloton classes can be streamed on bikes, treadmills, or mobile apps, it did not have sufficient licensing to broadcast the music over the air.
In a lawsuit filed last March, the NMPA's complaint alleged Peloton needed the more expansive (and expensive) "sync license," which allows music to be played to match its visual media output. Peloton classes are often conducted to the progression of each songs, such as standing up off the bike during the chorus, slowing down during an instrumental break, or turning up a treadmill speed each time a word is mentioned in the song lyrics, so songs can't simply be replaced by other music playlists when streamed on-demand. The lawsuit originally sought damage charges of $150 million, but doubled to $300 million in September after the NMPA discovered more improperly licensed music.
As a result, Peloton customers have seen many classes removed from their library, and claim that the quality of music has deteriorated since the lawsuit.
[...] In a countersuit, Peloton argued the NMPA's lawsuit was itself violating federal antitrust laws by conspiring to "fix prices and to engage in a concerted refusal to deal with Peloton." But while Peloton laid out the case at length, the company wasn't able to convince US district judge Denise Cote, who dismissed the case yesterday.
You can read the full opinion here on Scribd.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 03 2020, @06:28AM (1 child)
There are a lot of facts that haven't actually been publicized. It's worth a read, if you have the time. (more than five minutes, anyway, unless you're a legal beagle who skims through these things routinely)
Peloton moves up from my list of parasite companies, to something a little higher. They were willing to pay for the music they used, and in fact, paid for a lot of it. NMPA decided that they didn't like Peloton, and decided to go after them.
Neither side is faultless, and Peloton has NOT moved up into a class of "good, respectable companies". But, Peloton isn't the pure evil that the media companies would have us believe. If there is evil here, it was brought by NMPA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 05 2020, @12:05PM
'Parasite companies', I like that description..I still think it sums them up nicely.
This one leaves me conflicted.
0n the one hand, Peloton I like, not because I'm 'target demographic' for their wares or think they're a good idea, but because they are fleecing that idiot 'target demographic' (oh, and the money men who're funding the shebang) for all they can before it all goes tits-up (most of their profits getting ploughed into advertising, seriously?).
On the other hand, the NMPA, who I'd normaly have harsh words for, I like here for bitch slapping Peloton in the courts, hopefully hastening their eventual demise, as, for unavoidable reasons (and believe me, if I could have, I would have..) I've seen the fucking annoying TV adverts for their crap far too many times over the past couple of months (Hint: Looking after chronically ill relative).