CNN must face the music on alleged copyright violations

The self-proclaimed “most trusted name in news” can’t be trusted with access to songs it has been using in its news segments without gaining licensing, according to a lawsuit filed by a production company.

As reported by Rolling Stone magazine, the $17 million lawsuit was filed by Freeplay Music, a music library company that has 50,000 songs in its library available for licensing to use in television broadcasts, advertisements and YouTube videos.

According to the magazine, which accessed the lawsuit, several CNN outposts around the world treated Freeplay’s library like “their own personal cookie jar,” allegedly using over 115 copyrighted works in more than 280 segments over the past few years.

Freeplay, which said in the lawsuit that “it placed CNN on notice of this infringement, but its letter was ignored,” is accusing CNN of “willful copyright infringement,” Rolling Stone reported.

As the suit reads, these “are not minor uses” as the “music library has been used to create and enhance the CNN brand in these segments… to create the mood and feel” that producers “aimed to convey.”