Music Protecting and optimising in a digital world

We assist MXM Music, operated by multiple Grammy-award winning producer/songwriter Martin Sandberg (professionally known as “Max Martin”), on all producer agreements entered into between these producers and the artists and their record labels.

We act for the collecting society, PRS, and ICE (which licenses the repertoires of PRS, GEMA in Germany and STIM in Sweden for multi-territorial online platforms) in relation to a significant licensing and copyright infringement dispute with Spotify, in relation to the licensing of the repertoire ICE represents to Spotify internationally. This has included substantial advice in relation to copyright, licensing and Copyright Tribunal proceedings.

We act for the music collecting society PRS in relation to a significant licensing and copyright infringement dispute with YouTube, in relation to the licensing of PRS’s repertoire to YouTube internationally. This has included substantial advice in relation to Copyright Tribunal and High Court proceedings, relating to copyright, licensing and safe harbour provisions.

Court of Appeal judgment in a test case on copyright infringement. This is a test case on copyright and specifically the Communication to the Public right. The first instance judgment was handed down in November 2019, and the Court of Appeal decision on 26 March 2021. The case involves a dispute over TuneIn’s radio app and website, which provides users with links to third party radio stations around the world. The case is extremely important given the role of cross-border linking in the functioning of the internet, and the importance of territorial licensing models. This is one of the most significant copyright cases of recent years. The Court of Appeal largely upheld the first instance decision that the provision of links to foreign station unlicensed in the UK amounted to copyright infringement. However, the appeal was successful in respect of the TuneIn Pro App, which previously incorporated a record function, finding that it was not a different technical means for the purposes of copyright infringement. In addition to addressing a number of questions relating to the law on linking, this was one of the first occasions on which the Court of Appeal considered its power to depart from EU law following Brexit (the Court decided against doing so).