Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate and AHL teams sued for copyright infringement by music media moguls

Associated Production Music (APM), a joint venture between Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing has drawn the ire of professional sports teams, politicians and media alike as they continually try to throw lawsuit after lawsuit at these people in order to stop their music being unlawfully distributed without a license. Numerous teams and celebrities have been involved in lawsuits or cease and desist orders such as the Philadelphia 76ers, and even former President of the United States Donald Trump, the entirety of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Toronto Marlies and the AHL are just the latest victims of this legal war.

Per Rick Westhead, TSN Reporter and NY Times contributor; the Toronto Marlies are one of the many teams named in a lawsuit put forward by APM stating none of these teams had the proper licensing to use the songs:

The lawsuit states that the AHL did not have the proper licenses and APM stated they have court documents that show they have repeatedly tried to contact the AHL to halt the use of the music but it has gone ignored. The music production company is looking to gain $150K for every infringement listed in the lawsuit which would at minimum garner them a cool $1.35M if every team only had one infraction, though from the looks of the lawsuit there's definitely more than that.

APM is claiming "rampant infringement" for posting videos to their social media without the proper permissions. Normally, these sites would prevent the unlicensed media from being presented, and tend to work with creators in order to get things removed that they deem necessary. Videos have been removed in order to comply with the lawsuit, and APM is seeking an injunction against the entire league to prevent them from using any sort of unlicensed music in the future, lest they get nailed legally again.

Even the Olympics aren't immune to these legal battles, as the United States Figure Skating team was sued for copyright due to the music played during their performances.

It's one of those frustrating issues where clearly money means everything. Companies are more stringent than ever about the content they put out and want to maximize their profits every chance they get. World Wrestling Entertainment, the largest professional wrestling company in the world often takes down videos from social media creators the moment they are put through the processing phase. It tells creators and fans that your imagination and creativity can only be monetized if we profit off it. I can understand why you are looking to protect assets but there is a clear line between a clip of a song in a 30 second video as opposed to bootlegging an entire album and selling it for profit.

The Toronto Marlies may be facing an uphill battle alongside their AHL brethren, but if they comply by the rules and APM is happy with whatever terms they agree to: That's music to everyone's ears.