Partner Donald S. Zakarin, Chairman of the Pryor Cashman’s litigation group, was quoted in Law360 for its article “Sony, EMI Allowed to Intervene in Pandora-ASCAP Row.” The article discusses U.S. District Judge Denise Cote’s allowance of Pryor Cashman clients Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC and EMI Music Publishing Cos. to intervene in a lawsuit regarding the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) blanket license to digital rights of the publishers music catalog. Sony and EMI filed their motion to intervene on September 30th, 2013, saying Judge Cote's summary judgment ruling in favor of Pandora divested them of their exclusive rights under Section 106 of the Copyright Act to publicly perform the songs in their catalogs or authorize others to do so. 

Judge Cote recognized the potential financial loss for Sony and EMI under ASCAP’s license and granted the motion to intervene; however, the publishers are not allowed to raise any new arguments on appeal with the exception of their Copyright Act argument.

Donald S. Zakarin told Law360 that “we agree with the judge’s grant of our right to intervene, but disagree with the ruling insofar as it limits the arguments available to us on appeal.”

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