Playlist spat court-bound

The Ministry of Sound record label is suing music streaming site Spotify for breach of copyright in what could be a landmark case.

The Ministry claims copyright over its track listings, which are compilations of tracks by different artists and alleges that Spotify has infringed this copyright by reproducing the Ministry track listings.

The Ministry, which launched legal proceedings in the High Court last week, asserts that the law protects “the expertise and creative effort involved” in curating titles such as Ibiza Annual 2013. It is seeking an injunction requiring Spotify to remove the playlists and permanently block playlists that copy its compilations, as well as damages and costs.

Vanessa Barnett, partner at Charles Russell, said: “To get copyright protection in a playlist there needs to be a great deal of intellectual creativity and clout—quite how you get that with a list of songs is debatable.”

John Wilks, partner at DLA Piper, said a key issue would be whether the Ministry can establish that it meets the threshold for originality of the works, which is whether it is the “author’s own intellectual creation”.

He said: “Businesses involved in creating compilations will watch this case with interest, as it has important ramifications for the feasibility of such businesses in the face of digital content sharing platforms like Spotify.”