Penguin Random House Using Music in YouTube Ad Without Consent, Says Suit

Penguin Random House (PRH) reproduced and synchronized a copyrighted music track in a video advertisement on its YouTube page without license or authority, said a Thursday complaint (docket 1:23-cv-03946) by music publisher Charming Beats in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.

PRH created a video ad for its novel The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker and used Charming Beats’ copyrighted track without authorization, said the complaint. The music track is synchronized to the full 1:33 length of the ad, which appeared in a search performed by a third party on behalf of Charming Beats. The ad has been viewed “tens of thousands of times” and embedded on numerous third-party websites, plaintiff alleged.

It wasn't possible to identify PRH’s infringing ad “in the sea of 156 million hours of videos on YouTube” until April, when a third party Charming Beats used to scour YouTube for infringement found the ad, the complaint said. PRH created and displayed the spot “for the sole purpose of advertising its book with the intent to generate additional income,” it said.

In the YouTube ad, PRH removed and failed to include the copyright management information (CMI) associated with the music track, leaving out its track’s title, album name, author, label and copyright owner, despite notices from Charming Beats to do so. PRH ignored a cease-and-desist demand after acknowledging receipt of the cease-and-desist on May 5, said the complaint.

Though PRH was informed by YouTube that the musical content in the infringing ad belonged to Charming Beats, it “elected to ignore the YouTube notice,” the complaint said. The ad is still active and available to the public on PRH’s YouTube page, it said.

Charming Beats incurred damages as a direct and proximate result of PRH’s infringement under the Digital Millennial Copyright Act, said the complaint. It requests an award of defendant’s direct and indirect profits from the infringing ad, plus compensatory damages, costs and legal fees, it said. It may also elect to recover statutory damages under the Copyright Act of up to $150,000, it said.