American Hockey League in hot water after being named in major lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in California by APM Music alleges that the AHL used their music and sound clip without proper licensing.
Since the days of Napster, there have been countless lawsuits regarding music, media and who owns and can use it. Now it seems as if the American Hockey League is in hot water as a lawsuit has been filed against them in California regarding the use of music tracks on their social media.
Court documents state that APM Music has repeatedly contacted the league regarding unlicensed uses of the recordings. The AHL has failed to obtain the proper licences or admit any wrongdoing in the matter. The production company believes they are entitled to recover up to $150, 000 in damages for each work it believes the league has used. In the suit itself, APM lists more than 100 examples of music allegedly being used by the league and teams without permission.
The argument of copyright infringement has been a hot-button topic since the moment you could record and share music and the like with your friends, family and strangers. Why the league tried to pull a fast one by not obtaining the appropriate licences to play the clips in question is beyond comprehension and who knows, it may have cost them less in the long run.
It's important to understand that during a lawsuit, anything can happen, and this case itself isn't necessarily as cut and dry as it may seem. What is puzzling is if all these teams and the league as a whole knew about what was happening, why wouldn't anyone have stepped forward to stop it?
While it is likely that a resolution will come to light sooner rather than later it's important the league take a good hard look at themselves to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.
| POLL | ||
Should teams and leagues be allowed to use music and sound bites without licensing? | ||
| Yes. Everyone does it | 55 | 45.8 % |
| No. Rules are rules | 65 | 54.2 % |
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