San Francisco: Comedian Lewis Black has sued audio streaming service Pandora for $10 million over copyright infringement.
The comedian, who appears on The Daily Show, alleged that the platform ran recordings of his performances without obtaining the copyright, reports The Verge.
“One would think that entertainment giants like Pandora would honour the legacy of such an amazing talent, but instead it chose to illegally profit from the creative mind and literary/comedic works of Lewis Black,” the lawsuit read.
Black is represented by performing rights organisation, Spoken Giants, though it is not party to the lawsuit.
Black’s lawsuit follows similar legal actions from comedians like Andrew Dice Clay and Nick Di Paolo as well as Robin Williams and George Carlin, which are represented by the performing rights organisation, Word Collections.
Those suits were consolidated into one by the judge in March this year.
“The comedy community stands firm in their belief that their written work has value. Without the written work, there would be no recordings and no live performances,” said Spoken Giants CEO, Jim King.
In its response to the combined lawsuits, Pandora argued that it has been correct in doing so “because publishing rights for spoken-word content have not been the industry custom”.
The comedians benefit from the exposure they get on Pandora, and Pandora is not profitable while the comedy record labels are, said the company, counter-suing them for damages.
–IANS