HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

ASCAP is suing AT&T for failure to pay public performance royalties for their sale of musical ringtones. According to ASCAP’s opposition to AT&T’s  recently filed motion, ASCAP rebukes AT&T’s claim that a ringtone is no different than a song downloaded from iTunes and therefore does not require the payment of performance royalties. In response, ASCAP argues that when a ringtone plays to signal an incoming call, the public performance right is triggered in two ways—once when the ringtone is digitally transmitted to the phone (via the streaming transmission/delivery) and again when the song is actually played on the consumer’s phone to the public. According to the filing and a statement released by ASCAP, AT&T, and not the consumer, is then directly liable and responsible for the corresponding public performance royalties because the consumers’ phones are on AT&T’s network, and AT&T controls the entire series of steps that allow and trigger the ringtone performance based on incoming calls. Continue Reading »