ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York’s highest court has agreed to rule on a case pitting the owner of The Turtles’ 1967 hit “Happy Together” against Sirius XM Radio.
The issue is whether the copyright owners of recordings made before 1972 have a common law right to make radio stations and others pay for their use.
The case has been referred to the Court of Appeals from a federal appeals court. Federal law established limited copyright protections to recordings after Feb. 15, 1972, while preserving state law property rights on earlier recordings.
The case pits Flo & Eddie Inc., which owns The Turtles recordings, against Sirius XM Radio Inc., one of the largest radio and internet-radio broadcasters in the U.S.
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This story has been corrected to show that the year of The Turtles’ song “Happy Together” was 1967, not 1960.
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