Roc Nation and Tidal file response to Prince copyright suit

Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation and streaming service Tidal have filed responses to a copyright infringement complaint filed by the record label of late musician Prince.

In November last year, WIPR reported that NPG Records alleged that Roc Nation, through streaming service Tidal, had illegally streamed the late musician’s songs.

Yesterday, January 10, Roc Nation and Aspiro—the owner of Tidal—filed their responses to NPG’s complaint.

The original suit was filed at the US District Court for the District of Minnesota on November 15.

NPG cited a deal made with Tidal in August 2015. Under the deal, Tidal was given an exclusive licence to exploit “the next newly recorded studio LP” by Prince, called “Hit N Run: Phase 1”.

However, the record label alleged that the licence was meant to last only 90 days.

In the suit, NPG claimed that Tidal had exploited a number of copyrighted Prince songs, including the songs in the “Hit N Run: Phase 1” album.

Roc Nation and Tidal had not provided any documents that substantiated Roc Nation’s claim that it has rights to exploit any Prince copyrighted works, according to NPG’s suit.

NPG sought injunctive relief, an account of profits and damages, and a trial by jury.

Filed (pdf) at the District Court of Minnesota, Aspiro suggested that the licence is enacted via “formal, written agreements”, and that the parties agreed to collaborate in good faith on further creative marketing ideas and participation by Prince in the Tidal platform.

In a separate filing (pdf), Roc Nation alleged that the lawsuit brought by NPG “lacks valid copyright registrations” for the intellectual property rights asserted.

Aspiro also denied infringing copyright owned by Prince.

Additionally, Aspiro argued that the Bremer Trust, Prince’s estate, “lacks the requisite authority to authorise the instant lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs”, because the “plaintiffs are not the real parties in interest with respect to the claims asserted”.

Both parties asserted that Tidal was authorised under the licence to stream Prince’s copyrighted works.

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