Freeplay Music And CNN Have Ended Their Million-Dollar Copyright Infringement Showdown Nine Months Later

Late in November 2022, Freeplay Music sued CNN for over $17 million for allegedly violating the copyrights of over 115 works in over 280 of the network’s segments. Currently, the contentious legal dispute has been resolved between the parties.

22-year-old Freeplay and CNN just recently issued their notice of settlement, which DMN was able to get. Freeplay was represented in the matter by seasoned Hollywood lawyer Richard Busch. According to a lawsuit filed by a production music library, which was reported about nine months ago, CNN was accused of using protected tracks without a permit on CNN Philippines (73 works in 169 films), CNN Indonesia (40 works across 91 videos), and CNN Chile (three works in 19 videos).

In addition, the Scott Schreer-founded plaintiff claimed that CNN International in the United States had rebroadcast the disputed pieces and music. (According to the legal wording, song monitor TuneSat detected the alleged infringement and notified Freeplay of it.)

Anything less than the maximum statutory award of $150,000 per infringed work would not compel these media behemoths to stop widespread infringement of FPM’s intellectual property, according to Freeplay, which stated this in its original lawsuit.

CNN and Freeplay worked out “a short form settlement agreement” during a conference last Friday, August 25, according to the notice that was previously reported.
The details of the deal, including a potential CNN payment for damages, weren’t made public as of the time of writing. The corporations did state in the notice that they are “diligently working on executing a long form final settlement agreement,” and that dismissal papers must be filed by Monday, October 9th.

Following the resolution of a different infringement claim that the song library filed against Ford in early 2020, this most recent Freeplay settlement was announced in 2021. More generally, August brought forth a number of other significant developments involving legal disputes over infringement.

For instance, Dua Lipa is battling a new lawsuit over her widely streamed “Levitating” project, while the major record labels are now leading a $400 million lawsuit against The Internet Archive over their “Great 78 Project.”

However, according to court documents released about two weeks ago, Sony Music Entertainment and TikTok rival Triller have resolved their legal dispute, and Twitter/X has moved to dismiss a $25 billion lawsuit brought in June by numerous National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) members.

Freeplay Music And CNN Have Ended Their Million-Dollar Copyright Infringement Showdown Nine Months Later

Late in November 2022, Freeplay Music sued CNN for over $17 million for allegedly violating the copyrights of over 115 works in over 280 of the network’s segments. Currently, the contentious legal dispute has been resolved between the parties.

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