The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is going after mobile application Vinkle for copyright infringement.
The fire comes after music advocacy organizations, including NMPA, achieved a huge victory for songwriters’ royalties by having the Copyright Royalty Board to increase the rates. The NMPA has been cracking down heavily on copyright infringement cases.
Announced during the NMPA’s annual meeting in New York at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, CEO David Israelite detailed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Vinkle. Israelite added that this is the first action in a new campaign to bring the mobile application sector in technology and music “into line with U.S. Copyright law.” This action includes about 100 other cease-and-desist letters that were sent to nearly 100 applications.
Israelite claims that the apps are not properly licensed. While they may be integrating streaming services’ technology they are not acquiring their own licensing deals with rights holders.
“This is about the behavior of their app stores,” Israelite tells Billboard. “They are letting these apps scrape music off of their sites.”
These new copyright infringement cases include exercise systems like Peloton and video games. These infringement cases contributed 29.11% of U.S. music publishing revenue in 2021, according to NMPA.
As the NMPA pursues these infringement cases, they will utilize the MLC’s data and publish monthly reports to hold streaming services accountable for their payouts to rights holders.
