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28 August 2015Copyright

PRS for Music takes action over SoundCloud ‘copyright infringement’

UK-based performing rights licensing body PRS for Music has sued streaming service SoundCloud for copyright infringement.

PRS alleged that the streaming service has not paid songwriters’ royalties for using their work on its service and that it made the decision to sue after “years of negotiations” failed.

“After careful consideration, and following five years of unsuccessful negotiations, we now find ourselves in a situation where we have no alternative but to commence legal proceedings,” PRS said in a letter sent to its members.

The organisation added that when a writer or publisher becomes a member of PRS, it assigns “certain rights” to its works for PRS to administer.

“It’s our job to ensure we collect and distribute royalties due to them,” the letter said.

PRS added that SoundCloud had “continued to deny” it needed a licence for its service in the UK and Europe and was not remunerating PRS members when music was streamed.

“We have asked SoundCloud numerous times to recognise their responsibilities to take a licence to stop the infringement of our members’ copyrights but so far our requests have not been met.  Therefore we now have no choice but to pursue the issue through the courts.”

Neither party would reveal when or where the lawsuit was filed.

Launched in 2008 SoundCloud has more than 175 million users per month.

PRS claimed that SoundCloud’s lack of action could be proved by the fact it allegedly sent SoundCloud a list of 4,500 musical works which were being made available on the service.

However, SoundCloud decided to remove only 250 works, PRS said.

“Unfortunately, we have no visibility or clarity on SoundCloud’s approach to removing works, so it is not currently clear why these particular posts have been selected by them given the wider issue of infringement that is occurring.”

A SoundCloud spokesperson told WIPR that the lawsuit was regrettable.

“We believe this approach does not serve the best interests of any of the parties involved, in particular the members of the PRS, many of whom are active users of our platform and who rely on it to share their work and communicate with their fan base.

“We are working hard to create a platform where all creators can be paid for their work, and already have deals in place with thousands of copyright owners, including record labels, publishers and independent artists.”

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