Comedian Lewis Black Sues Pandora, SiriusXM Holdings

Comedian Lewis Black, who has turned angry rants into a career, is irate with streaming giant Pandora, which he claims is airing his material without permission, reports Bloomberg.

The recurring guest on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” sued Pandora Media LLC for copyright infringement, seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court.

Black’s claim is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by comedians against Pandora that may reveal how the streaming industry deals with novel licensing issues around the growing popularity of spoken word content. Comedians say streaming platforms need to pay them -- as the authors of jokes -- in the same way songwriters are paid royalties for writing lyrics.

“Pandora did what most goliaths do: it decided it would infringe now to ensure it had this very valuable intellectual property on its platform to remain competitive, and deal with the consequences later,” Black said in the complaint. “Later is now.”

Pandora, which was acquired by Sirius XM Holdings Inc. in 2019, says on its website that it’s the largest digital broadcast and streaming music provider in the US, with 70 million listeners and users each month.

Pandora used 68 of Black’s works without permission, according to the complaint. He’d be entitled to $150,000 for copyright infringement for each work under current law, Black said in the complaint.