ALBANY – No common law right of public performance exists in New York state to compel Sirius XM Radio to pay fees for the use of pre-1972 sound recordings by popular artists such as The Turtles, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
The 4-2 Court of Appeals majority said that while it is not unsympathetic to the anomalies in copyright laws that allow letting some artistic works to be used for profit by others without compensation to their creators, it should be up to Congress to define the public performance rights sought by creators of the Turtles’ music, as it did for post-1972 recordings under the federal Copyright Act of 1976.
