Comedians Are Joining Together to Sue Pandora

The comedians allege they’ve been underpaid, or not paid altogether, for performances streamed thousands of times already on Pandora.

They also claim Pandora knowingly posted their comedy routines without attempting to obtain licenses, and later admitted in regulatory filings that Pandora knew it was taking a risk by offering the material to its audience of over 55 million.

The comedians are seeking copyright compensation not just for the recorded performances, but for the underlying written material as well.

According to TheWrap, the consolidated copyright cases are looking to change the way they’re paid by streaming platforms, and legal experts have previously told the outlet that if they’re successful, the situation could play out like “The Napster of comedy.”

Preliminary hearings are set to begin in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles at the end of August.

“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,” George Lopez‘s lawsuit reads.

Pandora argues that would upend longstanding industry precedent, and claims it has paid out millions in royalties via comedians’ record companies.

“As of the date of filing, [Pandora] advertised that Mr. Lopez had 117,000 monthly listeners. 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,” his suit alleges.

Pandora offers a counter-claim, accusing the plaintiffs of demanding “radical” change that amounts to an illegal price-fixing attempt, via TheWrap.