Last month, in a copyright law version of the Saturday Night Massacre, Sirius XM Radio Inc. reacted to a string of courtroom losses by firing its law firms and bringing in new lawyers from O’Melveny & Myers. Since then the O’Melveny team has been fighting to reverse those losses, citing a 74-year-old ruling that they say is directly on point—even though their predecessors never mentioned it in their briefs.
Sirius, as we’ve reported, is locked in a multifront battle with recording artists and labels that accuse the satellite radio company of infringing their copyrights. Over the last three months, judges in California and New York have ruled against the company on the central legal issue in the cases, finding that artists have performance rights to songs recorded before 1972 under state law, even though federal copyright law doesn’t govern pre-1972 recordings.
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