A U.S. appeals court says French digital music company Believe cannot be sued in Florida for posting the songs of a cult 1980s Russian boy band on YouTube.
A Monday (July 28) opinion from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a lower court’s dismissal last year of a lawsuit brought against Believe by Florida-based company World Media Alliance, which claims to own the catalog of the band Tender May (Laskovyi Mai in Russian).
World Media Alliance alleges Believe infringed its copyrights by posting 44 videos containing Tender May’s songs on YouTube without permission. Believe counters that World Media Alliance isn’t actually the true owner of Tender May’s catalog, because the boy band’s producer sold the rights fraudulently and without the artists’ permission.
The question of Tender May’s catalog ownership is still being litigated in Russian courts. But regardless, a panel of three Eleventh Circuit judges says Monday that there’s no jurisdictional basis for Believe to be sued in Florida.
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“WMA admits that Believe is a French corporation registered in France with no specific ties with Florida,” writes the appellate court.
The three appeals judges say the only connection that World Media Alliance has established between the Tender May YouTube videos and the Sunshine State is that Florida residents “might have access to the allegedly infringing work online.”
“But it does not state that Florida residents have actually accessed it,” writes the panel. “Without any allegation that Believe engaged in potentially tortious conduct in the state of Florida, WMA has failed to allege specific personal jurisdiction under Florida’s long-arm statute. The district court did not err in holding there was no specific personal jurisdiction over Believe.”
Reps for World Media Alliance and Believe did not immediately return requests for comment on the decision on Tuesday (July 29).
Tender May was formed by a group of teenagers at an orphanage in what was then the Soviet Union in 1988. The band found success with their song “White Roses” (“Belye Rozi”), which according to court filings was a top 10 hit on Soviet charts. They split up in 1992.