The American Dollar and Yesh Music are back at it again with another lawsuit. The band, led by John Emanuele, and his publishing company have decided to sue Google for alleged unpaid royalties. This comes just a short while after they went after TIDAL for the same alleged issue.
The lawsuit contends that Google willfully and continued to infringed on the copyright of two of their compositions after being served a notice on July 22, 2015.
The complaint states that Google, the defendant "failed to serve an NOI, or a timely NOI, for all of Plaintiffs' and Putative Class' Copyrighted compositions." It adds in the very next line, that "The infringement of Plaintiffs' and the Putative Class Members' mechanical rights was, and is, knowing and willful."
In an almost copy, paste-like circumstance, they have filed the same terms as they did against TIDAL.
They are claiming statutory damages awards of anywhere between $750 and $30,000 for each infringed composition and up to $150,000 for willful infringement.
Yesh and American Dollar recently filed a very similar lawsuit against TIDAL. The service responded saying that they were up to date with the claim and the plaintiffs should take their complaint to Harry Fox Agency & Tunecore who administers the mechanical royalties.
The lawsuit is the latest from American Dollar who went after Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen for $3 million in damages for using music beyond their licensing agreement. However the suit was eventually thrown out by a judge.
The band has new lawyers this time around, but we will see if they have different results from these fresh suits.
Spotify is also facing two similar lawsuits for much higher amounts from other bands.
Whether or not the American Dollar and Yesh Music win these suits, it appears as though there is an issue with mechanical licenses and how they are managed. Spotify has vowed to invest more time and money into how it manages its licenses so payments are done more efficiently and there are no oversights in payments.
