{"id":1882,"date":"2024-07-22T15:12:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T15:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/nba-teams-sued-by-kobalt-over-copyrighted-music-in-social-media-videos\/"},"modified":"2024-07-22T15:12:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T15:12:56","slug":"nba-teams-sued-by-kobalt-over-copyrighted-music-in-social-media-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/nba-teams-sued-by-kobalt-over-copyrighted-music-in-social-media-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Teams Sued By Kobalt Over Copyrighted Music in Social Media Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tMore than a dozen NBA teams are facing copyright lawsuits from Kobalt and other music companies over allegations that the basketball teams used songs in social media videos without permission.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 14 separate actions filed in federal court Friday, Kobalt and others accused each club of using copyrighted music in promotional videos on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) to \u201cincrease viewership\u201d and \u201cengage its fanbase.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the case against the New York Knicks, the music companies accused the team of using songs by \u201cNew York legends\u201d Jay-Z and Cardi B. The case against the Philadelphia 76ers cited use of songs by Philly native Meek Mill. In the action against Atlanta Hawks, the complaint said the club had used music by \u201cAtlanta\u2019s own\u201d Migos and OutKast.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in each case, the overarching allegation was the same \u2013 that a sophisticated corporate entity had stolen music that it knew it was supposed to pay for.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendants are acutely aware of the protections that the copyright laws of the United States afford,\u201d lawyers for the music companies wrote in language that appeared in each lawsuit. \u201c[The team] utilizes the full extent of legal protections available for its own intellectual property while simultaneously knowingly and willfully infringing on the intellectual property rights of the plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the Knicks, 76ers and Hawks, the lawsuits targeted the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Orlando Magic, the Phoenix Suns, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Sacramento Kings and the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesman for the NBA did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other music companies who signed onto the lawsuits include Artist Publishing Group, Notting Hill Music and Prescription Songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tSocial media platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide huge libraries of licensed music for users to add to their videos. But there\u2019s a key exception: The songs can\u2019t be used for commercial or promotional videos posted by brands. That kind of content requires a separate synch license, just like a conventional ad on television.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn recent years, music owners have cracked down on brands that blur those lines on social media. All three major labels sued drink maker Bang Energy for using hundreds of copyrighted songs in TikTok videos, with Universal and Sony eventually winning judgments. The owner of the \u201cSpace Jam\u201d song has filed several lawsuits over the past year, including suing a minor league baseball team that used the famed 1990s track in a Facebook video. And earlier this month, the Beastie Boys sued the owner of Chili\u2019s for using the trio\u2019s \u201cSabotage\u201d in social media clips that spoofed the song\u2019s famous music video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a dozen NBA teams are facing copyright lawsuits from Kobalt and other music companies over allegations that the basketball teams used songs in social media videos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[587,2624,410,593,1052,571,412,2623,2219],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-copyrighted","tag-kobalt","tag-media","tag-music","tag-nba","tag-social","tag-sued","tag-teams","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}