Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/211098484/09-Civ-09177-2014-03-03-Opinion-Denying-Summary-Judgment
Timestamp: 2014-07-29 08:12:18
Document Index: 397635075

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1']

09 Civ 09177 2014 03 03 Opinion Denying Summary Judgment
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|Likes: 0Published by Christopher S. HarrisonSDNY order denying SESAC's motion for summary judgment in Television Music Licensing Committee's antitrust case.SDNY order denying SESAC's motion for summary judgment in Television Music Licensing Committee's antitrust case.More info:Published by: Christopher S. Harrison on Mar 07, 2014Copyright:Attribution Non-commercialAvailability:Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.download as PDF, TXT or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate content|Add to collectionSee moreSee lesshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/211098484/09-Civ-09177-2014-03-03-Opinion-Denying-Summary-Judgment07/04/2014pdftextoriginal UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEREDITH CORPORATION, THE E.W. SCRIPPS COMPANY, SCRIPPS MEDIA, INC., HOAK MEDIA, LLC, HOAK MEDIA OF NEBRASKA LLC, and HOAK MEDIA OF DAKOTA, LLC, Plaintiffs, -v- SESAC LLC and JOHN DOES 1–50, Defendants. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ X : : : : : : : : : : : : : : X 09 Civ. 9177 (PAE) OPINION & ORDER PAUL A. ENGELMAYER, District Judge: This lawsuit is the latest in a line dating to the 1940s that have challenged, under federal antitrust law, the practices of performing rights organizations (“PROs”) that issue collective (or “blanket”) licenses to the rights to perform the copyrighted music of their members or affiliates. In the United States, there are three such PROs. For more than 50 years, the licensing practices of the two largest—the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”), and Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”)—have been subject to consent decrees entered into with the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) following antitrust litigation. These decrees have imposed significant restrictions on these PROs. These include establishing a “rate court” to set reasonable fees for performance licenses when the PRO and the licensee cannot agree; requiring that the PRO’s right to issue performance licenses to its members’ music be non-exclusive; and requiring that alternatives means of licensing such music be made realistically available to would-be licensees. These terms have factored prominently in the court decisions that, since Case 1:09-cv-09177-PAE Document 143 Filed 03/03/14 Page 1 of 69
2 1950, have uniformly rejected antitrust challenges to ASCAP’s and BMI’s use of blanket licenses. This case involves the third, and smallest, PRO: SESAC LLC (“SESAC”). Unlike ASCAP and BMI, SESAC has never been subject to a consent decree. However, in the years leading up to 2008, SESAC’s latitude to set the terms of music licenses was otherwise limited: first by a series of industry-wide agreements it negotiated with the television broadcast industry; later, for the period April 2005 through December 31, 2007, by a contractual duty that bound SESAC to arbitrate its disputes with licensee stations. Since January 2008, however, SESAC’s range of motion has no longer been thus inhibited. SESAC has been free unilaterally to set the terms on which it will issue licenses to perform the music of its more than 20,000 affiliated composers. The issue in this putative class action is whether SESAC’s licensing practices since 2008 have violated federal antitrust law. Plaintiffs are groups of local television stations.
Plaintiffs contend that, since 2008, SESAC, with its affiliates’ assent, has taken steps to make illusory any alternative to the blanket license it sells, which conveys the right to play the music of all SESAC affiliates. Having insulated this product from competition and forced local television stations to acquire it, plaintiffs allege, SESAC has set an exorbitant price for that “all or nothing” license, even though stations have no interest in buying the rights to the entirety of They sue SESAC and 50 of its affiliated composers, who are named as “John Doe” defendants. The plaintiffs allege that, in practice, they must obtain licenses for some music in SESAC’s repertory. That is because SESAC’s repertory is large and includes works so ubiquitous that some are inevitably embedded in shows that the stations acquire and wish to air. 1
They are Meredith Corporation (“Meredith”); the E.W. Scripps Company; Scripps Media, Inc.; Hoak Media, LLC; Hoak Media of Nebraska LLC; and Hoak Media of Dakota, LLC. Case 1:09-cv-09177-PAE Document 143 Filed 03/03/14 Page 2 of 69
3 SESAC’s repertory. Plaintiffs assert that SESAC and its affiliates have thereby violated § 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, by combining to unlawfully restrain trade; and § 2 of the same Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2, by conspiring to monopolize the market for the performance rights to the musical works within SESAC’s repertory. Plaintiffs also assert a monopolization claim against SESAC under § 2. Discovery is now complete. SESAC
Background moves for summary judgment. For the reasons that follow, that motion is denied as to all three counts, save that, on the § 1 claim, the Court grants summary judgment to defendants in two ways that narrow that claim. Specifically, the Court rejects plaintiffs’ (1) per se theory of liability; and (2) claim of an agreement to restrain trade among all 20,000-plus SESAC affiliates, as opposed to among only the far smaller subset (under 1%) of affiliates who were party to a supplemental affiliation agreement with SESAC. A.
Because plaintiffs at no point identified or served any “John Doe” defendants, SESAC is the lone defendant to move for summary judgment, although the arguments it makes appear to run equally to the benefit of its “John Doe” affiliates. 3
The Court’s account of the underlying facts of this case is drawn from the parties’ submissions in support of and in opposition to the instant motion—specifically, Defendant SESAC LLC’s Statement of Undisputed Facts Pursuant to Local Rule 56.1 (“Def. 56.1”) (Dkt. 131); Plaintiffs’ Response to Defendant’s Statement of Facts Pursuant to Local Rule 56.1 (“Pl. Resp. to Def. 56.1”) (Dkt. 134); Defendants SESAC LLC’s Reply Statement to Plaintiffs’ Local Rule 56.1 Responses (“Def. Reply 56.1”) (Dkt. 137); Plaintiffs’ Local Rule 56.1 Supplemental Statement of Undisputed Facts (“Pl. 56.1”) (Dkt. 133); Defendant SESAC LLC’s Response to Plaintiffs’ Local Rule 56.1 Supplemental Statement of Undisputed Facts (“Def. Resp. to Pl. 56.1”) (Dkt. 136); the Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant SESAC LLC’s Motion for Summary Judgment (“Def. Br.”) (Dkt. 130); Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendant SESAC, LLC’s Motion for Summary Judgment (“Pl. Br.”) (Dkt. 132); the Corrected Reply Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant SESAC LLC’s Motion for Summary Judgment (“Def. Reply Br.”) (Dkt. 135); the Declaration of Susan J. Kohlmann in Support of SESAC LLC’s Motion for Summary Judgment (“Kohlmann Decl.”) and accompanying exhibits; the Declaration of Eric S. Hochstadt in Support of Plaintiffs’ Opposition to Defendant SESAC Case 1:09-cv-09177-PAE Document 143 Filed 03/03/14 Page 3 of 69
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