Coalition of willing record labels sues Ellen over music

Major suit filed in Nashville says TV host's people 'did not roll that way' when it came to licensing tunes -- Updated with comment from Warner Bros.

Email | Print By Kyle Swenson

Updated Friday at 10:10 a.m.: Scott Rowe, senior vice president of corporate communications at Warner Bros. Entertainment, has responded to the allegations with the following statement: "We have been working with the major record labels for many months to resolve a music usage issue, after years of a good working relationship between the parties.

It is unfortunate that the record labels have resorted to filing a suit over a straightforward business dispute which the show has always been prepared, and remains willing, to resolve on amicable and reasonable terms. This matter does not involve our host, Ellen DeGeneres, who, as everyone knows, is a tremendous music enthusiast and advocate. We hope to have a resolution quickly and look forward to continuing to work with all the labels in a mutually beneficial manner."

As originally reported:

Few pop culture bits have a higher daytime visibility than the so-called “dance over” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, a segment where the 3-million-viewers-a-day talk show host, accompanied by popular music, shimmies over to her desk following an opening monologue. However, a group of record labels is looking to cut the music on DeGeneres' gangly gag.

According to papers filed on Wednesday in Nashville's District Court, 17 labels have banded together to slap The Ellen DeGeneres Show and its parent companies with a lawsuit alleging the production has used “well over one thousand sound recording owned or controlled by Plaintiffs” without permission.

The coalition — which includes Arista Music, Atlantic Recording Corporation, Big Beat Records, Capitol Records, Motown Record Company, Priority Records, Rhino Entertainment Company, Sire Records Company, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Virgin Records America, Warner Bros. Recording, and Zomba Recording — says the show's producers have acted "with complete disregard" for the legal framework of the music business. Contacted by record company representatives inquiring about why they did not obtain licenses, DeGeneres' people said they “did not roll that way,” according to the filing.

Music soundtracks are part of a number of the show's sequences in addition to the iconic “dance-over,” and the show often employs “the same sound recordings in multiple episodes and multiple seasons,” according to the suit.

The famous “dance over” takes a predominant seat in the jilted labels' legal account, largely because the segment and its music “are considered signature elements of the Show.” When DeGeneres — who announced yesterday she will join American Idol as a judge — shortened the segment in 2006, the production received “thousands of objections from fans.”

The suit says the show's production crew has “full knowledge of the need to get licenses,” and that their refusal to do so represents willful “infringement of Plaintiff's exclusive rights,” as well as an violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.

The plaintiffs decided to file the suit in U.S. District Court because the area is “a major music recording and production center, and the recording industry has a sizable impact on the economy in this District.” The lawsuit — which is available here — asks for a jury trial and both compensatory and punitive damages.

None of the representatives for the recording companies reached today offered any comment, nor did the plaintiffs' attorney, Timothy L. Warnock of Riley, Warnock & Jacobson.

A New York spokesperson for the show's parent company Time Warner referred an inquiry about the lawsuit to a Warner Brothers representative in Los Angeles who has not issued any comment. Neither has a publicist for DeGeneres. NashvillePost.com will update this story if any of the defendants comment later today.