Five months after filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against hotel giant Marriott, Sony Music Entertainment appears to have settled the case.
In a joint filing in federal court in Maryland on Tuesday (October 8), Sony and Marriott asked that the case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled.
Court documents did not indicate whether the companies had reached an out-of-court settlement.
Sony and affiliated brands sony latin music, Arista Music, Arista Records, extremist, Lafasand Record Company Limited – add Rimas Entertainmenthome bad bunny – Lawsuit filed last May alleging “rampant” copyright infringement Marriott International Hotel in its social media posts.
Sony’s lawyers say they have determined 931 Instances of unauthorized use of Sony Music in social media posts from hotels owned, managed or franchised by Marriott. They claimed the hotel chain’s infringement was not limited to music owned by Sony.
Under U.S. copyright law, so many infringements would expose Marriott to approx. US$140 million In statutory damages.
Marriott International is the world’s largest hotel chain in terms of number of beds. It owns, manages or franchises hotels Marriott Hotels, sheraton, westin, Ritz Carlton Hoteland Le Meridien Hotel brand.
Sony’s complaint against Marriott Hotels, which can be read in full here, claims that the hotel chain’s use of Sony music in social media posts is sometimes calculated to capitalize on the popularity of specific songs or artists, and that Marriott Hotels’ It’s very clear the impact music has on the visibility of their promotional social media posts.
“It is no accident that Marriott Video uses some of the most popular recordings in Sony’s music library,” the complaint states.
“On algorithm-driven social media platforms, e.g. Instagram and Tik Tokadding a popular recording to a post will cause it to appear in the feeds of users interested in music who might not otherwise encounter the Marriott post…
“Including these popular recordings allows users to discover posts on the platform when searching for content containing certain artists, songs, or music-related tags.”
Sony has been the subject of multiple lawsuits in recent years over alleged unauthorized use of its music in advertising.
It files lawsuit against fitness apparel brand gymnastics shark In 2021, the company was accused of violating Chapter 297 Recordings from its commercials. The two companies settled out of court in 2022.
Suing cosmetics brands in 2021 French Financial Supervisory Authorityaccused the cosmetics brand of infringing on the copyright of “hundreds” of Sony songs.
Sony claimed in the case, which is still ongoing, that OFRA “succeeded by flagrant, willful and repeated infringement of the copyrights in sound recordings and musical works of various content owners.”global music business
