This is essential reading for any comic coming up in the business and anyone who is still looking to learn and laugh from the best. His new book, “Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades” is a backstage, all access pass to the people who have shaped how we think comedically to this day. It’s lines like this…the perfect summation of an entire group of individuals who’ve chosen to devote their lives to making strangers laugh, that keep any true comedy nerd eager to read, listen to, or watch whatever David Steinberg puts out into the world. “Insecurity combined with arrogance is good DNA for a comedian.” John’s been seen on Gotham Live, written for Newsweek, and has a short film on Amazon Prime titled, “Duppet.” Follow him on YouTube or Instagram. Interview contributed to The Interrobang by John Poveromo, a nationally touring comedian, cartoonist, writer and actor, and the host of Dystopia Tonight with John Poveromo on TwitchTV, ApplePodcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Those included works by Jim Gaffigan, John Mulaney, Dave Attell, Mike Birbiglia, Chad Daniels, Tom Segura, Jeff Foxworthy, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Jeff Dunham, Larry the Cable Guy, Patton Oswalt, Bob Newhart, Paula Poundstone, Robin Williams, Amy Schumer and Lisa Lampanelli.Robert Klein with David Steinberg Credit: Robyn Todd Spotify has faced the same kind of issue - and last fall, the streaming service removed multiple comedy albums, evidently over licensing disputes. Each of the plaintiffs is repped by King & Ballow partner Richard Busch. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuits against Pandora were filed Feb. “While Carlin would have been thrilled for his Works to live on through valid licenses and payments, he would have seven dirty words to say about Pandora’s actions and willful copyright infringement no doubt,” says the suit on behalf of Main Sequence, which manages George Carlin’s estate.
In the filings, Pandora also admitted that it “could be subject to significant liability for copyright infringement and may no longer be able to operate under existing licensing regime.”
They cite Pandora’s “Risk Factors” disclosures in SEC 10-K filings from 2011-17 (prior to its acquisition by SiriusXM) in which it acknowledges that it distributes spoken-word comedy content “absent a specific license from any performing rights organization” and that it never obtained a license for the underlying literary works for those sound recordings. In addition, Pandora’s “failure to obtain the necessary licenses for the Works, or pay royalties, but to nonetheless infringe by exploiting the Works, has been willful,” the complaints allege.
Pandora “knew or should have known that the harm caused by its repeated unlicensed public performance of the Works over the Internet was aimed at comedy writers and comedy publishers,” each lawsuit states. In total, the five lawsuits seek $41.55 million in damages from Pandora. The complaints against Pandora allege that each plaintiff is entitled to the “maximum amount of statutory damages,” which is $150,000 per copyrighted work for each act of copyright infringement. With respect to licensing agreements, stand-up comedians have contended that they should be treated like singer-songwriters, earning a separate royalty for the underlying “literary work” in addition to the performance of it.