A Closer Look At Universal Music Group's Believe Copyright Suit

Yesterday, Universal Music Group (UMG) slapped Believe and its TuneCore subsidiary with a massive copyright infringement action. Here's a closer look at the over $500 million complaint – and the defendants' alleged “illegal actions.”

DMN first reported on the straightforward suit moments after its filing in a New York federal court. Just to recap, the 34-page complaint accuses Believe as well as its TuneCore distributor of failing to vet third parties' allegedly infringing works, distributing them to DSPs such as YouTube anyway, and “wrongfully” collecting certain royalties to boot.

While it perhaps goes without saying given the half-billion-dollar damages payment sought by UMG, the alleged infringement encompasses all manner of commercially prominent works. The latter include but definitely aren't limited to recordings from the Bee Gees, Daddy Yankee, Elton John, Lil Wayne, and Weezer.

Believe's Alleged Infringement At a Glance: “Modified Versions,” Unauthorized “Remixes,” and More Distributed “Without Any Effective Review to Identify Infringing Copies”

Beginning on the core distribution side – adjacent allegations extend a bit further than that – Believe and TuneCore have “relentlessly pursued the goal of distributing as many tracks as possible,” per the plaintiffs.

For Paris-headquartered Believe, that refers to a purported practice of distributing “the tracks it receives (including those from questionable sources with no prior history of creating sound recordings)” sans infringement-related due diligence, according to the legal text.

“Many” of the “obviously infringing tracks” at hand “are 'speeded up' versions of Plaintiffs' popular recordings,” the suit indicates.

“Believe is well aware that such tracks are popular on certain digital services and are more likely to evade the checks that digital music services use to detect infringing material on their platforms,” ​​according to UMG.

Nevertheless, Believe “has derived a direct financial benefit attributable to the infringement” when it comes to terms that “entitle it to retain a percentage of” the allegedly infringing songs' streaming royalties.

All told, “the infringing tracks distributed and purportedly licensed by Believe have been streamed (i.epublicly performed), downloaded or reproduced in videos hundreds of millions of times across the digital music ecosystem on a wide variety of digital music services,” UMG maintains.

Content ID Shenanigans? Believe “Compounded” Alleged “Unlawful Conduct” via False Claims on YouTube, Lawsuit Shows

Not stopping there, Universal Music is further accusing Believe of compounding alleged “unlawful” distribution conduct via “spurious assertions of copyright ownership” on YouTube.

“In numerous cases,” some of the relevant lines read, “Believe has used YouTube's Content ID system to claim copyright ownership in Plaintiffs' owned or distributed recordings embodied in tracks Believe distributed to YouTube.” That includes “numerous instances where” a work “was simply an infringing copy of” a UMG recording, according to the plaintiffs.

Consequently, Believe has allegedly forced Universal Music “to incur the burden and expense of routinely contesting Believe's incorrect claims of ownership.” And as described by Universal Music, “Believe did not even contest” the appropriate claims in many instances.

In those situations, however, the defendants allegedly proceeded “to distribute and purport to license the exact same tracks to other digital music services,” continuing “to collect royalties on those tracks from these other providers,” the suit spells out.

Believe Fires Back Against Universal Music's Lawsuit: “We Strongly Refute These Claims”

DMN reached out to Believe – which, in the not-so-distant past, looked as though it might become a subsidiary of Warner Music Group – and received a to-the-point comment attributed to a company spokesperson.

“Believe and TuneCore do not comment on pending litigation,” said the Believe spokesperson relayed. “As companies that work with artists and labels around the world, we take the respect of copyright very seriously. We strongly refute these claims, and the statements made by Universal Music Group and will fight them.

“We have developed robust tools and processes to tackle this industrywide challenge, working collaboratively with partners and peers and will continue to do so. We have been at the forefront of the digital music ecosystem for nearly 20 years, supporting the development of independent artists and labels, and have been awarded Tier 1 status and included in the Preferred Partner Program across all music stores,” the expansion-minded business concluded.