Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Maryland
Is pandora.com a legal website? I'm concerned about copyright infringement.
Asked on 1/03/13, 7:49 pm
1 Answer from Attorneys
John Mitchell
Interaction Law
Pandora operates under a statutory license. (See http://whymusicmatters.com/find-music/entry/statutory-services?search=pandora). I see no reason to suspect copyright infringement. But your seems to be premised on the notion that listening to music could be an infringement. That is not the case. Just listening to music is not covered by any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner. For example, if someone is performing musical composition publicly on a street corner without a license, the performance itself may be infringing, but the people who hear it are not.
Answered on 1/03/13, 8:51 pm