PokerStars Owned Media Company Being Sued for $6 Million Over Copyright Infringement
November 23, 2018 11:26 am
PokerNews.com, a subsidiary of PokerStars, has had a $6 million lawsuit filed against it over copyright infringements spanning several years. According to the brief, the site intentionally incorporated significant portions of the plaintiffs’ copyrighted musical works into hundreds of its podcasts, despite being warned of its illegality. As the complaint states:
“Accordingly, iBus Media is liable for its infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyright interests, either because it has directly engaged in infringing activities or because it is secondarily liable for infringing activities undertaken by others.”
Who is iBus Media?
Antanas Guoga, a Lithuanian businessman, politician and poker player, founded iBus Media as PokerNews in 2002. He then started selling his equity in the company to the Stars Group in 2010, and has since exited the business with the Stars Group now owning a majority shareholding in iBus Media.
The Complaint
A group of record labels have filed a collective lawsuit against iBus Media, including such labels as Roc-A-Fella Records, Capitol Records, UMG Recordings, Universal Music and PolyGram Publishing.
According to their complaint, the company has committed at least 315 examples of music copyright infringements in its 522 episodes of the ‘PokerNews Podcast’. The lawsuit further explains that iBus Media had been notified in December 2015 that it was infringing the Plaintiffs’ musical works, but nevertheless continued reproducing and distributing the copyrighted material.
Currently, more than half the ‘PokerNews Podcast’ shows are available for streaming or download via digital distribution services, such as iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and audioBoom. Addressing the issue, the Plaintiffs stated in their complaint:
“iBus Media does not have any license or other authorization from Plaintiffs to reproduce, distribute, adapt or publicly perform in the United States any of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted musical works.”
Copyright Infringement
The Plaintiffs’ lawsuit claims that iBus Media illegally used their catalog of copyrighted musical works, which encompasses music composed or performed by a wide array of both legendary and contemporary songwriters and artists. Among the dozens of artists whose music was infringed are such acts as the Black Eyed Peas, Billy Idol, and The Who.
As the lawsuit states, this unauthorized usage has resulted in “substantial, manifest, and irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs, while enriching iBus Media at Plaintiffs’ expense.” The industry labels also pointed out in their legal complaint:
“In each of the Infringing Podcasts, Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works are prominently featured and undoubtedly used with the intention of making the podcasts more appealing to listeners.”
The Record Company Plaintiffs have labelled iBus Media’s actions as “wilful and deliberate” and are currently asking for $150,000 in statutory damages for each piece of infringed work. However, the current total claim of around $6 million is likely to increase if the case ever goes to trial.
PokerNews and iBus Media Connection
It was only revealed last year that PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker room, owned the majority shareholding in iBus Media. The latter company operates PokerNews.com, an online portal dubbed the “largest poker media site in the world.”
Prior to an official announcement, The Stars Group was rumored to have a vested interest in the company, especially considering the site’s reporting is viewed as particularly PokerStars heavy. Someone with a keen insight into the live reporting process of PokerNews is Lee Davy, a journalist at CalvinAyre.com. As he subsequently noted in an article last October:
“For a very long time, it was clear to all and sundry that PokerNews was placing heavy emphasis on PokerStars and their ambassadors. Their relationship with the European Poker Tour (EPT) skewed this bias where, as a live reporter, I was told to place particular emphasis on PokerStars players. As well as being instructed to focus on PokerStars players, I was also told to put less focus on the competition.”
No one is attacking PokerNews.com for showing some bias towards PokerStars. However, critics have said that it would have been more transparent for The Stars Group to have acknowledged their ownership of the site at a much earlier date.