Major record companies on Wednesday filed copyright infringement case against “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” claiming that the primetime show producers played over 1, 000 titles without the record labels’ permission.
Based on the documents filed at the Nashville-US District Court, record companies all over the world accused the Ellen Show of illegally playing more than 1, 000 song titles during the “dance over” segment, where host Ellen Degeneres dances from the audiences’ stand to the interview stage.
Lawyers of the music firms claimed that when they asked the representatives of the said show about the violations, they simply replied, “We don’t roll that way.”
“The defendants are well aware and they knew fully well that as sophisticated consumers of songs need a license to play the music recordings. Regardless that they ‘didn’t roll that way,’ under the state law for pre-72 (1972) recordings and copyright law, they need the permission of the record labels before they play those songs,” documents said.
Meanwhile, Telepictures Production Spokesperson Scott Rowe said that they have already been discussing the issue with the record companies concerned. He added that the record labels remained willing to resolve the issue on “reasonable and amicable terms.”
Also, Rowe said that the talks regarding the copyright violation does not involved Ellen Degeneres, adding that the host is a music enthusiast and pro-copyright advocate.
It will be recalled that Ellen was recently named as the fourth judge on the popular “American Idol” show.
On the other hand, lawyers of the record companies laid down its documents, saying that the Ellen Show violated the copyright law into almost all new popular artists’ music.
The suit added that producers of the said show repeatedly play popular songs in its “song of the day” segment, which according to lawyers, has no license for daytime television.
Songs that were allegedly infringed include Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”, and The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.”