Facts

Larry Reynolds is a musician from Louisiana who has produced songs and has several copyrighted albums. He filed suit against Apple Inc and Google LLC for unlawfully making available his copyrighted songs for streaming and downloading. Apple was previously granted summary judgment.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that while he has received some royalty payments stemming from defendant's distribution of his works, defendant exceeded the scope of the licenses. He also argued that defendant was required to file with him a United States Copyright Office a Notice of Intent before distributing his work. Finally, plaintiff asserted that defendant had not paid, or had underpaid, royalties owed to him.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant contended that it provided uncontroverted evidence that they obtained valid copyrights for the sound recordings, through CD Baby, and mechanical licenses, through Harry Fox Agency, of plaintiff's recordings and therefore lawfully distributed his music. A CD Baby employee provided a declaration stating that plaintiff signed their agreement multiple times, authorizing CD Baby to distribute and license his work. That agreement was in effect during the entirety of the relevant period. Moreover, defendant and CD Baby paid plaintiff the royalty amounts to him for defendant's use of plaintiff's work. As to the Harry Fox agreement, a declaration provided that plaintiff, on behalf of his publisher, opted into the Google Play Music Services Direct Licensing Agreement hosted by the Harry Fox Agency, which granted Google mechanical licenses for plaintiff's music. Plaintiff's complaint even acknowledges that he received royalties from this agreement and again, the agreement was in effect during the entire relevant period.

Result

The court granted Google's motion for summary judgment.