{"id":878407,"date":"2025-12-17T23:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/warner-music-sues-pacsun-over-alleged-blatant-willful-and-repeated-copyright-infringement-in-social-media-promo-videos\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T23:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:26:12","slug":"warner-music-sues-pacsun-over-alleged-blatant-willful-and-repeated-copyright-infringement-in-social-media-promo-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/warner-music-sues-pacsun-over-alleged-blatant-willful-and-repeated-copyright-infringement-in-social-media-promo-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Music Sues Pacsun Over Alleged \u2018Blatant, Willful, and Repeated Copyright Infringement\u2019 in Social Media Promo Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Warner<\/p>\n

A content creator workspace. Photo Credit: Catherina Sch\u00fcrmann<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another day, yet another social media copyright lawsuit \u2013 once again from Warner Music Group (WMG), which is suing Pacsun over allegedly infringing promotional videos. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warner Music just recently submitted the straightforward suit, naming Pacific Sunwear of California (Pacsun) as a defendant. By now, many in (and some outside) the industry are aware of the flurry of actions levied over companies\u2019 allegedly unauthorized use of music in promos on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms.<\/p>\n

In general, said platforms\u2019 terms allow individuals (not businesses) to incorporate pre-cleared tracks into personal videos; companies, for their part, must obtain standalone licenses for music-equipped uploads. The way the majors and several publishers tell the story, however, all sorts of high-profile brands have opted against doing so.<\/p>\n

To be sure, universities, professional sports teams, restaurant chains<\/a>, energy drink companies, and different apparel businesses have faced (and, in certain instances, are still facing) infringement litigation.<\/p>\n

Bearing as much in mind, Warner Music\u2019s Pacsun suit, alleging direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement alike, doesn\u2019t break very much new ground. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

According to WMG, Pacsun infringed on nearly 300 compositions and recordings in social media promos \u2013 a portion allegedly uploaded by the company itself, others allegedly posted by influencers. This includes works recorded by Olivia Rodrigo, Snoop Dogg, Dua Lipa, Radiohead, and The Weeknd, to name a few<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Per Warner Music, the song-heavy clips \u201care integral to PacSun\u2019s promotional, marketing, and branding strategy,\u201d which has purportedly helped the clothing seller generate \u201chundreds of millions <\/em><\/strong>of dollars in annual revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding pre-litigation notices, WMG is said to have sent Pacsun a cease-and-desist letter in February 2024 about its alleged \u201cblatant, willful, and repeated copyright infringement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the exact chain of events is unclear from there, any subsequent discussions evidently failed to produce an amicable resolution. DMN reached out to Pacsun and its Golden Gate Capital parent for comment; Pacsun didn\u2019t respond in time for publishing, and Golden Gate declined to provide a statement.<\/p>\n

As for the status of Warner Music\u2019s separate social-infringement complaints, a Designer Shoe Warehouse legal battle<\/a> is plodding through discovery and has a related conference scheduled for December 9th.<\/h4>\n

The same (that the case is tangled in the discovery weeds) appears to be true of Warner Music\u2019s Crumbl copyright confrontation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, amid the defendant\u2019s\u00a0motion to dismiss<\/a> on jurisdictional grounds, it\u2019s been a while since Sony Music\u2019s University of Southern California suit delivered a significant development. And as we reported last month, a ticked-off songwriter is looking to reopen<\/a> the seemingly settled showdown between publishers and NBA teams.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

Blythe Noren
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A content creator workspace. Photo Credit: Catherina Sch\u00fcrmann Another day, yet another social media copyright lawsuit \u2013 once again from Warner Music Group (WMG), which is suing Pacsun over allegedly infringing promotional videos. Warner Music just recently submitted the straightforward suit, naming Pacific Sunwear of California (Pacsun) as a defendant. By now, many in (and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442,1751],"tags":[6406,11446],"class_list":{"0":"post-878407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"category-warner","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-warner"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}