TuneIn Loses U.K. Lawsuit Over Streaming Unlicensed Music

(Bloomberg) --

Radio streaming service TuneIn Inc. lost a lawsuit filed by two major record companies for playing music without a U.K. license.

TuneIn breached Warner Music U.K. and Sony Music Entertainment's copyright, Judge Colin Birss said Friday in a judgment in London. The record companies sued the app developer for allowing subscribers to listen to music played by stations outside the U.K., without a license to play the tracks in Britain.

Birss also questioned the record function on TuneIn's Pro app, which had 150,000 U.K. users in January 2019. The judge said the function allowed users to create “a library of music” and turned the app into a “download on demand service.” The function was disabled in the U.K. in April 2017.

The ruling comes just weeks after the BBC pulled its own radio stations from TuneIn's app. The U.K. state broadcaster, which runs some of the nation's most popular radio stations, said that the move was because of TuneIn's inability to provide data on its listeners.

While TuneIn said it's considering an appeal, the San Francisco-based company emphasized that the court ruled in its favor on a separate claim, “confirming that music radio stations licensed in the U.K. can be made available through the TuneIn service to TuneIn's U.K. users.”

“We won on the most important element of the case, which was the right to provide U.K. users with access to U.K.-authorized radio stations,” Chief Executive Officer Juliette Morris said in a statement. “TuneIn is committed to complying with all applicable laws in the countries we serve and will continue to defend the right to operate a directory service providing listeners access to content freely available on the Internet.”

Representatives for Sony Music didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

A Warner Music spokesman said that the company welcomed the decision and hoped TuneIn would “seek to operate on a fully licensed basis.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Eddie Spence in London at espence11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

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