Sony Music Entertainment and a number of its subsidiaries, including Ultra Records and AWAL, are being sued by Patrick Moxey’s 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 Ultra’s 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 Moxey’s 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 Moxey’s 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. Sony’s lawsuit (via Ultra Records LLC), filed against Moxey’s company in November 2022, centered around Moxey’s continued use of the ‘Ultra’ name.
In January 2023, Moxey/UIMP filed a counterclaim against Sony Music’s lawsuit in the court of the Southern District of New York.
Most recently, in Friday’s lawsuit, Moxey’s 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 Publishing’s 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 Sony’s 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 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.”
Ultra International Music Publishing lawsuit against Sony Music
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 what’s 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.
Moxey’s 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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