Vivendi, Time Warner Seek Arbitration in `Ellen' Show Music Copyright Case
Vivendi SA’s music labels and Time Warner Inc. are seeking arbitration in a copyright case in which the labels charged that “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” played its recordings without a license.
Lawyers for the two sides said they’d entered into an arbitration agreement and asked U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson to halt the case and transfer it to binding arbitration, according to a filing in federal court in Los Angeles yesterday.
Labels in Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, the largest record company in the world, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in March against the producers of the daily “Ellen” talk show and Time Warner, whose television unit distributes the program to stations. Universal said ‘Ellen’ played without permission “hundreds of sound recordings owned or controlled by” the label group.
Time Warner’s lawyers said Universal had given an ‘implied” consent to play the recordings because the show has been broadcast since 2003 and the labels didn’t send a letter demanding it stop playing them until February 2009.
The case is Interscope Records v. Time Warner Inc., 10- 01662, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division (Los Angeles).
To contact the reporter on this story: Don Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net.
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