{"id":2910,"date":"2024-10-07T12:46:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T12:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/music-streaming-app-platform-musi-sues-apple-on-breach-of-contract-claims\/"},"modified":"2024-10-07T12:46:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T12:46:06","slug":"music-streaming-app-platform-musi-sues-apple-on-breach-of-contract-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/music-streaming-app-platform-musi-sues-apple-on-breach-of-contract-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Streaming App Platform Musi Sues Apple on Breach-of-Contract Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Canada-based music\u00a0streaming platform Musi has sued Apple in California federal court just a week after the Big Tech giant removed the Musi app from its Apple App Store\u00a0on the basis of infringement claims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jennifer A. Golinveaux and\u00a0Samantha K. Looker, attorneys at Winston & Strawn’s San Francisco office, filed a complaint<\/a> on behalf of Musi on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. The suit alleged breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The case was assigned to Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins on Thursday. Counsel has not yet appeared for the defendant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Musi. whose headquarters in the province of Manitoba, is an app that\u00a0gives users the ability to bypass\u00a0paying for similar services from subscription-based rivals like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music\u00a0by allowing them to stream any song\u00a0uploaded to YouTube for free. The app provides the option to listen to “audio-only” versions of music videos from YouTube’s catalogue and continues to play in the background, unlike videos played directly on YouTube, when the user exits the app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the complaint, Apple unexpectedly deleted the app from its app store on Sept. 24 in response to “a five-word complaint dated July 29, 2024 from a complainant identified as ‘YouTube Legal.'”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Musi\u00a0claimed that it has been in communication with\u00a0YouTube since at least 2015 and that it had addressed several of the company’s concerns about the app’s compliance with its terms of service in discussions held between April and May 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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YouTube later sent\u00a0notices to Apple accusing\u00a0Musi of “[violating] its intellectual property rights”\u00a0in March 2023 and July 2024. Musi’s repeated efforts to contact YouTube in the interim, it said, were met with radio silence and correspondence sent to YouTube requesting clarification\u00a0on Sept. 6 went answered, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The complaint states that Musi’s counsel sent an update to Apple on Sept. 24 explaining that YouTube had not responded to any of its attempts to establish contact. On the same day, Apple informed Musi that it\u00a0was moving to strike the Musi app from its App store “on the basis of intellectual property infringement.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Apple’s decision to abruptly and arbitrarily remove the Musi app from the App Store without any indication whatsoever from the Complainant as to how Musi’s app infringed Complaint’s intellectual property or violated its Terms of Service, and in light of the fact that Musi has continued to operate the Musi app in a substantially similar matter since May 2021, was unreasonable, lacked good cause, and violated Apple’s Development Agreement’s terms,” wrote attorneys for the plaintiff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the claim, Apple breached the terms of its own development agreement by terminating downloads of the Musi app without a “reasonable basis” for believing that the app infringed on YouTube’s intellectual property. Musi is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to reinstate the app to the Apple app store;\u00a0direct, actual, compensatory and\/or consequential damages; and\u00a0prejudgment interest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Apple and Musi’s counsel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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