The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has asked the courts to allow it to double its claims against exercise bike and treadmill startup Peloton, after discovering more unlicensed music — including songs by Taylor Swift and Kesha — being used in workout videos that play on the bikes' built-in screens. It's now seeking $300 million in damages, as reported by Forbes.
The original complaint, filed in March, accused Peloton of using over 1,000 songs without getting the proper license. At the time, NMPA requested $150 million in damages. After the lawsuit was filed, the offending songs conveniently disappeared, upsetting connected exercise equipment owners who'd gotten used to their beloved playlists.
But not all the songs disappeared, as reported by The Verge. Here's what the NMPA now has to say about that:
Indeed, it is only as a result of initial discovery in this lawsuit that the full scope and extent of Peloton's unlawful infringement has started to come into focus, revealing more than 1,000 additional musical works [...] those newly discovered works include some of the most famous and popular songs ever recorded, such as "Georgia On My Mind," "I Can See For Miles" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday September 16 2019, @11:29AM (1 child)
> They should have just hooked it up to YouTube.
Or connect to user's spotify account, or any other streaming music provider.
But it looks like they gave users the ability to create their own playlists on the bike instead, why? - well I guess this is the bit where the user is the product and the user-music data was intended to have some value, when sold. Trouble is, it's a bit tricky selling data about stuff you didn't license back to the people you didn't license it off... someone really didn't think this one through.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:29AM
If users did the infringing then go chase them