Sony Music Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against Triller for having allegedly stopped paying licensing fees in March 2022. The company claims that Triller has continued to allow Sony Music songs to be shared on the app, despite the termination of their deal.
“Despite extolling the importance and value of ‘innovative technology and intellectual property,’ and claiming to hope that its efforts to curb copyright infringement ‘will set a precedent for us and all content creators going forward that stealing is not going to be tolerated,’ Triller displays brazen contempt for the intellectual property rights of Sony Music, its artists, and others,” Sony Music said in the lawsuit.
Sony Music and Triller first entered into a content distribution agreement back in September 2016. The lawsuit continues to claim that Triller failed to make any attempt at following through with their monthly payments starting in March 2022. “While Triller had historically failed to make payments in a timely manner under the Agreement, its failures recently escalated,” Sony Music said.
The deal was fully terminated on August 8, yet Sony's content continues to be available in Triller’s app.
It's unclear exactly how much compensation Sony is suing for, as the lawsuit says, “The full scope of Triller’s infringement is unknown."
The new legal trouble comes less than a month after it was announced that Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are also suing Triller. The two allege that the company owes them $28 million for their prior acquisition of the show, Verzuz.
[Via]