Several record label giants have taken aim at ELLEN DEGENERES’ daily U.S. talkshow in a new copyright lawsuit – accusing the series’ bosses of using popular songs without prior permission.
Record companies including Arista, Capitol Records, Sony and Warner Bros. Records are named as plaintiffs in the suit filed at Nashville’s U.S. District Court on Wednesday (09Sep09).
The lawsuit alleges DeGeneres’ producers did not obtain licences to play more than 1,000 songs used during the beloved comic’s ‘dance over’ section – where the star strolls to her stage through the audience at the beginning of each show.
When asked why they failed to gain permission to use the songs, defendants for the show allegedly told the companies that they didn’t “roll that way”.
The suit replies to the statement, saying, “As sophisticated consumers of music, Defendants knew full well that, regardless of the way they rolled, under the Copyright Act, and under state law for the pre-1972 recordings, they needed a license to use the sound recordings lawfully.”
According to the suit, the show has used “recordings by virtually every major current artist of popular music,” since it began its run in 2003.
A spokesman for Telepicture’s Productions, the show’s production company, states the series has been trying to come to a solution with the record companies in recent months.
DeGeneres is not targeted personally in the lawsuit, which also sees Motown Records and Atlantic Recording Corp. add their names to the raft of plaintiffs.