Top Story: Toronto Marlies & other AHL teams hit with massive lawsuit
The Toronto Marlies, along with eight other AHL teams, are facing a copyright infringement lawsuit from Associated Production Music (APM).
APM has an extensive music catalog and emphasizes the importance of copyright and licensing their tracks to major companies and brands. In their lawsuit, APM claims that the teams posted videos on social media featuring songs from their catalog over 100 times without permission. They also allege that they reached out to the league multiple times but received no response. Rick Westhead has the details.
U.S. production music company APM Music has filed a lawsuit in California against the American Hockey League and a number of the league’s teams for allegedly using music tracks from APM’s catalogue on their social media channels without proper licenses.
APM said it court… pic.twitter.com/pc0CQrHo52— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) September 28, 2024
APM Music, a U.S. production music company, has filed a lawsuit in California against the American Hockey League (AHL) and several of its teams for allegedly using tracks from APM’s catalog on their social media platforms without the necessary licenses.
In court documents, APM claims to have repeatedly contacted the AHL about these unauthorized uses, but the league has not sought to obtain proper licenses or acknowledge any wrongdoing. The music production company is seeking up to $ 150,000 in damages for each instance of copyright infringement, citing over 100 cases where its music was used without permission.
How the AHL and its teams will respond to this lawsuit remains to be seen, but it’s clear that this is a serious legal matter that teams would prefer to avoid. Some record labels can be quite unforgiving in such situations.