Merlin Agrees to $1.6 Million Settlement of Infringement Claim with Sirius
- Merlin settles copyright infringement claims over Sirius’ Stiletto Recording Devices- Successful class action means Merlin members and entire independent label community have opportunity to benefit
London, 5 April 2012 – The global independent rights agency Merlin has agreed to the settlement of a long-running copyright infringement dispute with Sirius Satellite Radio for a sum of $1.6 million.Merlin fought for the settlement with Sirius Satellite Radio over their Stiletto range and other similar recording devices, after claims were settled with the four major record labels between 2007 and 2008.The court approved agreement closes a longstanding class action lawsuit. While achieving a settlement of its own members’ claims, Merlin’s decision to participate in the class action was pivotal to the achievement of the $1.6 million settlement for the entire independent record sector.As a result, Merlin members and all other independent record labels that had their sound recordings transmitted by Sirius Satellite Radio between November 1st, 2005 and 26 August, 2011 have the opportunity to participate in the settlement.The settlement follows a similar arrangement announced in April 2011 relating to Merlin’s role in a Class Settlement with XM Satellite Radio over XM’s Pioneer Inno recordable radio receiver and other similar recording devices.Said Charles Caldas, Merlin CEO: “At a time where market consolidation is swallowing up more independent interests, delivering even more power into the hands of the largest major labels, adding this settlement to the growing list of litigation successes achieved by Merlin on behalf of its members is gratifying. Actions such as this further underline the enormous value that Merlin provides to the ever growing list of independents that have chosen to enhance their business by joining our organisation.”About MerlinMerlin represents the world's most important set of independent music rights. Merlin commenced operations in May 2008. Since then it has struck deals with a large number of digital services including Spotify, YouTube, Google Music, Rdio and Simfy and reached a number of copyright infringement settlements on behalf of its members with amongst others Limewire, Sirius Satellite Radio, XM Satellite Radio and Grooveshark. Merlin seeks to ensure its members have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are appropriately valued and protected.Merlin represents by far the largest and most compelling basket of global independent rights in the world, and so offers the most efficient means of licensing this repertoire. Members include Warp Records, Epitaph, Naïve, Tommy Boy, One Little Indian, Yep Roc/Redeye, Kontor New Media, Beggars Group, Merge, !K7, PIAS, Domino and Koch/E1. Their artists include Adele,Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, The xx, Neko Case,Spoon, Grizzly Bear, The National, Tom Waits, DJ Khaled, Dorrough,Tiësto, Scooter and many, many more.A global organisation, its members’ market share in the US alone is reported at around 10%, equivalent to that of the smaller major labels, whilst in Europe member labels released 72% of the top 60 independent albums released in the past three years and commanded a 11% digital UK market share in 2009. Most recently, streaming service Spotify publicly announced that Merlin repertoire represented over 10% of the usage on its service.www.merlinnetwork.org