Sony Music Entertainment and a number of its subsidiaries, including Ultra Records and AWAL, are being sued by Patrick Moxeys independent publisher, Ultra International Music Publishing.
The lawsuit, filed in New York on Friday (November 29) on behalf of Ultra International Music Publishing LLC (UIMP) and Ultra Music Publishing Europe AG, centers on allegations of copyright infringement due to Sony and its affiliates alleged use of Ultras compositions without a license.
As noted in the lawsuit, the independent Ultra publishing companies own and exploit the copyrights in over 50,000 compositions, which have been recorded by superstar artists ranging from Ed Sheeran and Madonna to Rihanna, Katy Perry, Migos, and many others. Ultra songwriters have been nominated for over 100 Grammy Awards and have won multiple Grammy Awards.
Moxey is the former owner of Ultra Records, which was fully acquired by SME in 2021. SME already owned 50% of the label, which it acquired from Moxey in 2012, after which he continued to run the label as its President and co-owner.
Moxey left Ultra Records in January 2022, but continued to fully own Ultra International Music Publishing.
This is not the first time Moxeys independent publishing company has been involved in a legal dispute with Sony Music and SME subsidiary Ultra Records. MBW broke the news in December 2022 that Moxeys publishing company was being sued by Sony-owned Ultra Records.
Moxey continued to use the Ultra name for his publishing company following the Ultra Records sale in late 2021. Sonys lawsuit (via Ultra Records LLC), filed against Moxeys company in November 2022, centered around Moxeys continued use of the Ultra name. In January 2023, Moxey/UIMP filed a counterclaim against Sony Musics lawsuit in the court of the Southern District of New York.
Most recently, in Fridays lawsuit, Moxeys Ultra International Music Publishing has accused Sony Music of underpayment and non-payment of royalties to Ultra Music Publishing and its songwriters. The publishing company says it has been engaged in an audit of Sony Music Entertainment and its affiliates for a number of years.
Ultra Music Publishings complaint also claims that Sony admitted the audit uncovered credit errors and miscalculations of payments to Ultra and its songwriters, but that Sony wrongfully refused to pay the Ultra Plaintiffs and their songwriters the monies that the Audit revealed they are owed.
Due to Sonys alleged refusal to pay the Ultra publishing companies and their songwriters what they are owed, UIMP says in the complaint that it no longer grant(s) licenses to Sony Music and its subsidiaries for its compositions in order to protect (UIMP) songwriters.
The lawsuit claims: The Sony Defendants know, and have known for years, that the Ultra Plaintiffs will not grant them licenses.
Despite their lack of licenses, the Sony Defendants engage in knowing, willful, and utterly inexcusable copyright infringement of the Ultra Compositions.
According to the lawsuit, which you can read in full here, Sony Music and its subsidiaries are allegedly infringing UIMP compositions by upload(ing) unlicensed sound recordings of the compositions to streaming services and selling the infringing Sony Recordings as digital downloads and in physical configurations (such as vinyl records) as well a wrongfully syncing them in music videos and lyric videos.
The lawsuit adds: Although the Ultra Plaintiffs have repeatedly demanded in writing that the Sony Defendants cease and desist from their infringing activities, the Sony Defendants flatly and unequivocally refuse to do so.
UIMP claims that it sent a letter to SME in January 2023, which you can see in part below, that reiterated to SME that: (a) Defendants lack licenses to exploit sound recordings of the Ultra Compositions, and (b) the Sony Defendants exploitation of the Ultra Compositions constitutes copyright infringement. UIMP alleges that SME rebuffed its demands.
Attached to the lawsuit is whats claimed to be a non-exhaustive list of around 100 compositions that the Ultra Music publishing companies say they believe in good faith are being infringed by Sony Music and its subsidiaries.
With up to $150,000 sought per work infringed, damages sought could be at least $15 million. Ultra Music Publishing is demanding a jury trial.
Moxeys companies add in the complaint that this lawsuit is just the first of numerous copyright-infringement actions that the Ultra Plaintiffs intend to bring against Defendants.
The lawsuit adds: As Plaintiffs investigation of Defendants wrongful conduct continues, the Ultra Plaintiffs intend to assert more copyright infringement claims against Defendants for additional Ultra Compositions that Defendants are unlawfully exploiting without a license.
Ultra Publishing also argues in the complaint that Sony Music and its subsidiaries routinely present themselves to the public as purported champions of intellectual property rights and crusaders against piracy but suggest that the opposite is true.
The Sony Defendants themselves are willfully committing blatant, ongoing, and massive piracy of the Ultra Plaintiffs intellectual property on a global scale, without justification or remorse.
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