Remember the 1960s-70s chart-topping rock band The Turtles? If you’re a Baby Boomer, you probably can’t forget “Happy Together” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
Their hits may be long past, but leaders of the group may be about to cash in for up to $99 million from the satellite radio broadcaster SiriusXM to settle a copyright lawsuit brought by the founding members.
It’s all over the unlicensed satellite-radio broadcast of songs recorded before 1972, according to Los Angeles court documents obtained Wednesday.
Terms of the proposed class-action settlement were made public after SiriusXM resolved its differences with Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman — known as Flo & Eddie of The Turtles — on the eve of a federal court trial.
At issue are digital broadcast rights and royalties on a wide range of recordings made prior to 1972, such as The Turtles’ 1967 chart-topper “Happy Together.”
The settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez.
The Turtles’ first it was in 1965 with Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
Digital radio services such as Sirius and Pandora have not been paying royalties for songs recorded before 1972 because they lacked federal copyright protection, court papers show.
In September 2014, Gutierrez found Sirius liable to Flo & Eddie Inc. under California law. A damages trial had been scheduled for Nov. 15.
Flo & Eddie also sued Sirius in New York and Florida.
In June 2015, Sirius agreed to pay five major record companies $210 million to settle a suit over its broadcast of pre-1972 songs by the likes of the Beatles, Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones.
–City News Service