Termination Rights Class Action Against Sony Music Entertainment to Proceed

Johansen v. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., No. 19-cv-1094-ER, 2020 WL 1529442 (S.D.N.Y March 31, 2020).

On February 5, 2019, musicians David Johansen, John Lyon, and Paul Collins (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed a copyright infringement and declaratory judgment class action against Sony Music Entertainment based on Sony’s continued exploitation of the Plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings despite being served with termination notices.  On June 11, 2019, Sony filed a motion to dismiss the action for failure to state a claim because the Plaintiffs’ termination notices are untimely, deficiently identify the grants being terminated, deficiently identify the dates of execution of the grants, and that these errors are not harmless so the notices are invalid. Addressing Sony’s assertions, the court determined based on the record before it that it is entirely plausible that Johansen’s and Lyon’s notices were timely, and that Collins’ untimeliness was due to a “scrivener’s error,” which would make it harmless error, so dismissing the suit without more information would be inappropriate.  Moreover, the court determined that the Plaintiffs provided sufficient information about the sound recordings in issue to overcome omissions of details about the grants being terminated, so “the general harmless error rule may apply.” As a result, the court denied Sony’s motion to dismiss.