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posted by janrinok on Monday February 03 2020, @04:41AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 03 2020, @02:33PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday February 03 2020, @02:33PM (#953125) Journal

    Dear AC,

    You will then also indemnify Peloton for any licensing violations? How generous of you! You must be pretty rich to be able to pay what will be a lot more than $5 million after the settlements.

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