SiriusXM To Appeal Pre-'72 Hits Ruling

SiriusXM Radio will appeal a federal-court decision that found the satellite radio company had violated California copyright law by playing songs by the Turtles without the 60s band's permission, a company executive said at a conference on Wednesday.

According to The Wall Street Jrounal, a transcript of his remarks at the Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance Conference, Sirius XM Chief Financial Officer David Frear said "we intend to appeal [the] decision all the way through the appeal process." The remarks represented the company's first comment on the matter since the decision emerged early last week.

The Turtles' founding members filed the lawsuit last year because Sirius XM, like many digital music services, has never paid performance royalties on songs recorded before 1972, the year sound recordings were brought within the scope of federal copyright protection. Older recordings are protected under a patchwork of state laws, such as California's.

The summary judgment issued last week in the case found that Sirius XM had "performed" the band's songs in California without permission—and in doing so had violated state law.

Mr. Frear said that the ruling implied that "every AM/FM station, bar, restaurant, stadium, Internet webcast or satellite guy has been operating in violation of California law since 1982. Not one case brought by one act ever."

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