Zagorsky-Beaudoin v. Warner Music Group Incorporated

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedSeptember 9, 2019
Docket2:18-cv-03031
StatusUnknown

This text of Zagorsky-Beaudoin v. Warner Music Group Incorporated (Zagorsky-Beaudoin v. Warner Music Group Incorporated) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zagorsky-Beaudoin v. Warner Music Group Incorporated, (D. Ariz. 2019).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Larissa Zagorsky-Beaudoin, No. CV-18-03031-PHX-JAT

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Rhino Entertainment Company, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court are seven motions to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of 16 Civil Procedure (“Rules”) 12(b)(2), 12(b)(3), and 12(b)(6), as well as Plaintiff Larissa 17 Zagorsky-Beaudoin’s (“Plaintiff”) additional motions. The Court now rules on the 18 motions.1 19 I. BACKGROUND 20 On March 1, 2019, Defendants Warner Music Inc., Rhino Entertainment Company 21 (“Rhino), Atlantic Recording Corporation, Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, 22 Pamela Lueneburg, and Kris Ahrend (collectively, “Warner Defendants”) filed a pending 23 Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 64). Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 104) on April 1, 2019, 24 and Warner Defendants filed a Reply (Doc. 123) on April 16, 2019. 25

26 1 Although some Defendants request oral argument in this matter, the request for oral argument is denied because the issues have been fully briefed and oral argument 27 would not have aided the Court’s decisional process. (Doc. 65); see also Partridge v. Reich, 141 F.3d 920, 926 (9th Cir. 1998); Lake at Las Vegas Inv’rs. Grp. v. Pac. Dev. 28 Malibu Corp., 933 F.2d 724, 729 (9th Cir. 1991); see Prison Legal News v. Ryan, No. CV-15-02245-PHX-ROS, 2019 WL 1099882, at *1 n.1 (D. Ariz. Mar. 8, 2019). 1 On March 1, 2019, Defendants Music Reports, Inc., W.B. Colitre, and Brian 2 Oppenheimer (collectively, “MRI Defendants”) filed a pending Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 3 65). Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 120) on April 15, 2019, and MRI Defendants 4 filed a Reply (Doc. 123) on April 16, 2019. 5 On March 1, 2019, Defendant eBay Inc. (“eBay”) also filed a pending Motion to 6 Dismiss (Doc. 70). Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 89) on March 13, 2019, and 7 Defendant eBay filed a Reply (Doc. 91) on March 20, 2019. Plaintiff’s Response (Doc. 89) 8 contains a request for injunctive relief and a separate request for sanctions against 9 Defendant eBay. (See Doc. 89 at 2). 10 On March 12, 2019, Defendant Apple Inc. (“Apple”) filed a pending Motion to 11 Dismiss (Doc. 86) and joined Warner Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 64). Plaintiff 12 then filed a Response (Doc. 113) on April 8, 2019, and Defendant Apple filed a Reply 13 (Doc. 124) on April 16, 2019. 14 On March 28, 2019, Defendant Myspace Music LLC (“Myspace”) filed a pending 15 Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 101) and joined Warner Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 16 64). Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 133) on April 28, 2019, and Defendant Myspace 17 filed a Reply (Doc. 145) on May 10, 2019. 18 On March 28, 2019, Defendant Pandora Media, LLC (“Pandora”) filed a pending 19 Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 102) and joined Warner Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 20 64). Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 132) on April 26, 2019, and Defendant Pandora 21 filed a Reply (Doc. 146) on May 13, 2019. 22 On April 1, 2019, Defendant eMusic.com, Inc. (“eMusic”) filed a pending Motion 23 to Dismiss (Doc. 105) and joined Warner Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 64). 24 Plaintiff then filed a Response (Doc. 125) on April 22, 2019, and Defendant eMusic filed 25 a Reply (Doc. 136) on May 2, 2019. 26 On August 7, 2019 Plaintiff also filed a Motion to Compel (Doc. 187) MRI 27 Defendants to respond to discovery request. Included in Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel (Doc. 28 187) is a request for sanctions against MRI Defendants. (Doc. 187 at 12). 1 The thirty-three-page Complaint (Doc. 1) purports to assert seven causes of action 2 against twenty different named Defendants stemming from an alleged licensing and royalty 3 dispute between Plaintiff and various music labels and distributors. (Doc. 1 at 4–6, 8–30). 4 These causes of action fall into three categories of claims: (1) copyright infringement; 5 (2) fraud and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) claims; and 6 (3) criminal claims. (See id. at 8–30). 7 A. Facts 8 The following facts are either undisputed or recounted in the light most favorable to 9 the non-moving party. See Wyler Summit P’ship v. Turner Broad. Sys., Inc., 135 F.3d 658, 10 661 (9th Cir. 1998). Plaintiff claims to own a one-third interest in the pre-1972 copyrighted 11 musical composition of the song, All Night Long, co-authored by the Beaudoin Bros. and 12 performed by The Palace Guard. (Doc. 1 at 2, 7). Plaintiff alleges she granted a mechanical 13 license to manufacture and distribute copies of The Palace Guard’s recording of All Night 14 Long, embedded within a box set of CDs, in 2009. (Id. at 6).2 Plaintiff continues that she 15 terminated that license in 2015. (Id. at 26–27). Plaintiff contends she never licensed or 16 otherwise authorized digital copies and distributions of the All Night Long track, and 17 royalties from digital sales of the song were not properly accounted to her by Defendants. 18 (See, e.g., id. at 7, 10, 21–23). Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Warner Defendants and 19 MRI Defendants, conspired to assign an International Standard Recording Code 20 (“ISRC”)3—used to track digital sales of recordings—to the All Night Long track that 21 diverts royalties to an unrelated third party, thus depriving Plaintiff of royalties under the 22 license. (Id. at 3, 10). 23 Plaintiff alleges she first discovered this conspiracy in 2010. (Id. at 10 (“In 2010, 24 Plaintiff discovered that Defendants . . . , in conspiracy, fraudulently used [a third party’s]

25 2 The January 2009 license and September 2009 “Revised” license that Plaintiff attached to her pleading indicate that she was located in Tennessee and then Georgia, 26 respectively, when she entered into each license. (Doc. 1 at 6, 34–37). 27 3 MRI Defendants explain that an ISRC is used in “an International Standards Organization system for identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. Each 28 ISRC is intended to be a unique identifier for a specific recording, but the system is notoriously polluted with misallocated codes.” (Doc. 65 at 4 n.4). 1 invalid USRHD0900559 ISRC code for All Night Long” (emphasis added))). Plaintiff 2 further alleges Defendants must be infringing her claimed copyright because box sets 3 including All Night Long were available in 2017 on auction websites, such as Defendant 4 eBay’s website. (Id. at 28; Doc. 1-3 at 22–25). Plaintiff adds that digital downloads and 5 streams were also available on foreign websites in 2017 and 2018, in violation of her 6 claimed copyright. (Id. at 13–14, 28). Finally, in naming each Defendant, Plaintiff 7 expressly alleges that none of Defendants are domiciled in Arizona. (Id. at 4–6). 8 II. PLAINTIFF’S MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS 9 Plaintiff filed an “Objection” (Doc. 137) to the timeliness of MRI Defendants’ 10 Reply (Doc. 134). As MRI Defendants point out, because one of the grounds for MRI 11 Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss (Doc. 65) is a lack of personal jurisdiction, District of 12 Arizona Local Rule of Civil Procedure (“LRCiv”) 12.1(b) sets forth that “the time schedule 13 for filing and service of responsive and reply memoranda will be the same as for motions 14 for summary judgment”—fifteen days. LRCiv 12.1(b); LRCiv 56.1(d). Here, Plaintiff filed 15 her Response (Doc. 120) on April 15, 2019, and MRI Defendants filed their Reply (Doc. 16 134) and related Notice of Errata (Doc. 135) by April 30, 2019. Accordingly, MRI 17 Defendants’ Reply (Doc. 134) was timely and Plaintiff’s “Objection” (Doc. 137) and 18 implicit request to strike is denied. Plaintiff raises the same “Objection” (Doc. 138; Doc. 19 150) and request to strike Defendant eMusic’s Reply (Doc. 136) and Defendant Pandora’s 20 Reply (Doc.

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