Jacob
Ebin

Music Licensing Trial Experience

Represented Spotify USA, Inc. in the successful appeal of a Copyright Royalty Board decision setting rates and terms for “mechanical” rights licenses to be paid to songwriters and music publishers as well as the resulting remand proceeding. (Johnson v. Copyright Royalty Board).

Represented Sirius XM in a five-week trial before the Copyright Royalty Board in a litigation over appropriate royalty rates and terms for Sirius XM’s public performance of sound recordings. (In re Determination of Royalty Rates and Terms for Transmission of Sound Recordings by Satellite Radio and “Preexisting” Subscription Services (SDARS III)).

Represented Pandora in a five-week trial before the Copyright Royalty Board to set rates for so-called “mechanical” rights licenses to be paid to songwriters and music publishers. (In re Determination of Royalty Rates and Terms for Making and Distributing Phonorecords (Phonorecords III)).

On behalf of Pandora, secured highly favorable sound recording performance royalty rates for the 2016-2020 license period following a six-week trial before the Copyright Royalty Board; defended successfully on appeal to the D.C. Circuit. (In the Matter of Determination of Royalty Rates and Terms for Ephemeral Recording and Webcasting Digital Performance of Sound Recordings (Web IV)).

Represented Sirius XM in a royalty-rate setting victory following 19 days of trial in federal rate-setting litigation before the Copyright Royalty Board; defended successfully on appeal to the D.C. Circuit. (In the Matter of Determination of Rates and Terms for Preexisting Subscription Services and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services (SDARS II)).

Represented background music service DMX, Inc. in a precedent-setting trial victory in the BMI Rate Court establishing rates and terms for the first ever BMI “Adjustable-Fee Blanket License”; defended successfully on appeal to the Second Circuit. (Broadcast Music, Inc. v. DMX, Inc.).

Complete trial victory for background music service DMX, Inc. in the ASCAP rate court establishing rates and terms for the first ever ASCAP “Adjustable Fee Blanket License”; defended successfully on appeal to the Second Circuit. (United States v. ASCAP (In the Matter of DMX, Inc.)).

Additional Music Licensing Experience

Represented the commercial local television industry in ASCAP license fee negotiations, recently securing a significant industry-wide license fee decrease without need to turn to litigation.

Represented the Digital Licensee Coordinator in the first ever “administrative assessment” proceeding to set the budget for the Mechanical License Collective.

Represented the commercial local television industry in SESAC license fee negotiations and arbitration in a proceeding to set reasonable rates and terms for SESAC licenses.

Represented the commercial local television industry in license fee negotiations and litigation before the ASCAP rate court in a proceeding to set reasonable rates and terms for ASCAP licenses. (In Re Petition of Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises, et. al.).

Represented the commercial local television industry in license fee negotiations and litigation before the BMI rate court in a proceeding to set reasonable rates and terms for BMI licenses. (WPIX, Inc. et al v. Broadcast Music, Inc.).

Represented the commercial radio industry in license fee negotiations and litigation before the ASCAP rate court in a proceeding to set reasonable rates and terms for ASCAP licenses. (In Re Application of the Cromwell Group, Inc.).

Represented the commercial radio industry in license fee negotiations and litigation before the BMI rate court in a proceeding to set reasonable rates and terms for BMI licenses. (Withers Broadcasting Co., et al v. Broadcast Music, Inc.).

Successfully represented a group of local television stations as plaintiffs in a putative class action against SESAC alleging violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act (Meredith Corporation, et al. v. SESAC LLC, et al., (S.D.N.Y. 2014)). Resulted in a very favorable industry-wide settlement that provided $42.5 million in refunds to the stations and placed various restrictions on SESAC’s dealings with local television stations for a 20-year period.

Additional Significant Litigation Experience:

Representing Pandora Media in a group of copyright infringement cases coordinated by purported licensing collective, Word Collections, on behalf of alleged owners of the copyrights in jokes and comedy routines embodied in comedy sound recordings available on Pandora’s streaming service. In this case, the plaintiffs seek to disrupt decades of industry custom and practice by claiming that Pandora must separately license the underlying jokes from the sound recordings in which those jokes are embodied.

Represented a major pharmaceutical company in antitrust litigation alleging that a competitor foreclosed its product from the market in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Represented a major consumer products retailer in litigation brought by the Federal Trade Commission attempting to block its proposed merger.