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.
Related Stories
Peloton Outage Prevents Customers From Using $2,500 Exercise Bikes:
Peloton hasn't been having a great run lately. While business boomed during the pandemic, things have taken a sour turn of late on a bizarre host of fronts.
[...] adding insult to injury, connectivity issues this week prevented Peloton bike and treadmill owners from being able to use their $2000-$5000 luxury exercise equipment for several hours Tuesday morning. The official Peloton Twitter account tried to downplay the scope of the issues:
We are currently investigating an issue with Peloton services. This may impact your ability to take classes or access pages on the web.
We apologize for any impact this may have on your workout and appreciate your patience. Please check https://t.co/Dxcht2tQB0 for updates.
— Peloton (@onepeloton) February 22, 2022
[...] For much of Tuesday morning the pricey equipment simply wouldn't work. While the company's app still worked (For some people), Bike, Bike+, and Peloton Tread owners not only couldn't ride in live classes, they couldn't participate in recorded classes because there's no way to download a class to local storage (despite the devices being glorified Android tablets). The outage (which occurred at the same time as a major Slack outage) was ultimately resolved after several hours, but not before owners got another notable reminder that dumb tech can often be the smarter option.
Perhaps one day in the future, scientists will invent a way to make exercise machines that do not require internet access. Such a fantastic invention would be locked up behind patents.
See also:
Peloton Admits It's in Hot Water With DOJ, DHS, and SEC Over Its Treadmill Mess
Peloton treadmill owners will be able to run again without a subscription
Peloton disabled a free running feature on its treadmills, forcing owners to pay up
Peloton disabled a free feature on its $4,000 Tread+, forcing owners to pay a $39 monthly fee to use the machine
Peloton faces backlash after disabling free running feature on its $4,000 treadmills
Music Publishers Say Peloton Stole Even More Music, Ask for $300 Million
Peloton's Countersuit Against Music Publishers Over Song Copyrights Just Got Thrown Out
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @04:44AM
I just ejaculated on my pet snail and he won't move!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 03 2020, @04:49AM (1 child)
Dear Peloton,
If that's the basis of their lawsuit, I will happily write software that can algorithmically achieve all the above for merely
$1$5 million. Please feel free to get in contact.(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 03 2020, @02:33PM
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.
This sig for rent.
(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).
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday February 03 2020, @10:21AM
Hindsight is 20/20 but if they started their own label and scoured the free music scene they would have spent less. Maybe sold tracks too with a permissive license so other fitness clubs could get stuff at the right price.
Account abandoned.