Oh the travesty! Talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres & her talk show’s producers for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” are being sued for the use of music during the “dance over” segment at the beginning of each show, where Ellen dances through the audience to some music having a good time interacting with everyone and it’s so hilarious and even I laugh. But the record companies don’t find it to be too funny – because they weren’t paid their licensing fees!
Per Huffington Post:
“As sophisticated consumers of music, Defendants knew full well that, regardless of the way they rolled, under the Copyright Act, and under state law for the pre-1972 recordings, they needed a license to use the sound recordings lawfully,” the suit states.
Plaintiffs include Arista Music, Atlantic Recording Corp., Capitol Records, Motown Record Company, Sony Music Entertainment, Virgin Records America and Warner Bros. Records. Typically, Ellen’s show plays less than 30 seconds of a song and it can be argued that it falls under fair use. Ellen’s people say they didn’t “roll that way,” on licensing, but they seriously need to come up with a better defense on that one!
Ellen’s show has been on the air for 6 years, so why are the record companies just now filing a suit?
Quoteables:
Evil Beat Gossip: “I’ll tell you what’s funny, though — no one would have reported on this story if Ellen hadn’t been named the fourth Idol judge this week. Success is a bitch.”
Gawker - “Here we thought the music industry was about bringing happiness into an otherwise dismal existence. Now we learn they’re only about profits. The horror!”
Why doesn’t the music business see it the way that I see it? The music being played on Ellen’s show by Tony is free promotional material. I hope that some of the artists that have appeared on her show stand up for her. It seems that the labels and the RIAA are sue happy lately.