George Lopez Joins Growing Group of Comedians Suing Pandora for Copyright Payments (Exclusive)
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A wave of comedians’ copyright cases with the potential to seriously boost streaming royalties gained more clout Tuesday when George Lopez added his name to the list of comics seeking compensation from Pandora, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Lopez joins a growing host of comedians including Lewis Black and Andrew “Dice” Clay — as well as the estates of George Carlin and Robin Williams — whose consolidated copyright cases are poised to change the way they’re paid by streaming platforms. Multiple legal experts have previously told TheWrap that if successful, the situation could play out like “The Napster of comedy.”
And it’s no longer a distant notion: Preliminary hearings in the consolidated cases are set to begin in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles at the end of this month, TheWrap has also learned.
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The lawsuits — Black’s is from July 7, and a batch was filed in February by several comics — are packed with receipts, claiming they’ve been underpaid or stiffed altogether for performances already streamed thousands of times on Pandora. They say Pandora knowingly posted comedy routines without attempting to obtain licenses of any kind, then admitted in regulatory filings that it knew it was taking a risk by offering the material to its more than 55 million users.
But there’s a subtle sea change embedded in those lawsuits: The comedians are seeking copyright compensation not just for the recorded performances, but for the underlying written material as well. That structure would be unprecedented for comedians – though it’s exactly how musicians have been compensated for over a century.
Lopez’ lawsuit was filed by attorney Richard Busch, who is representing all parties in the matter via a handful of separate suits pressing the same issue against Pandora. Unlike previous lawsuits, Lopez comes right out firing when it comes to the two-copyrights stance, stating it as settled fact:
“Just like with music, there are two copyrights involved in the recorded performance of a literary copyrighted work: a copyright in the sound recording, and a separate copyright in the underlying spoken word composition … Anyone wishing to obtain the right to do so, must get a license from the respective copyright owner in both of these copyrights, and pay agreed-to royalties,” the lawsuit reads.
Pandora argues that would upend longstanding industry precedent, and denies ever stiffing any comedian, claiming it has paid out millions in royalties via comedians’ record companies (tell that to Black, whose lawsuit says he’s the sole copyright owner and hasn’t been paid a penny, despite his routines streaming on Pandora tens of thousands of times).
Lopez’ lawsuit says 37 of his recorded works have been streamed thousands of times on Pandora.
“As of the date of filing, [Pandora] advertised that Mr. Lopez had 117,000 monthly listeners,” the lawsuit reads. “If each listener listened to only one (1) available work per month, that’s 1,404,000 broadcasts or/interactive streams per year at a minimum. Unfortunately, Mr. Lopez has not received a fraction of a penny for any of these broadcasts or streams.”
Pandora has declined to comment to TheWrap or provide access to its executives or legal counsel, pointing to its counterclaim — which accuses the plaintiffs of demanding a “radical” change that amounts to an illegal price-fixing attempt — as its response. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and other large-scale streamers didn’t respond to queries from TheWrap about their comedy content strategies and how comedians are compensated.
But whatever comes for Pandora will assuredly come for them, too.
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