Comedian Robin Williams reacts after receiving the Stand Up Icon award during the second annual 2012 Comedy Awards in New York April 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Chernin

(Reuters) – Sirius XM’s Pandora Media Inc wants to turn the tide against a top comedy group and an affiliated performing rights organization that sued the online music service over royalties for their copyrights of jokes, accusing them of fixing prices and stifling competition.

Pandora said in counterclaims filed Thursday that WordCollections Inc formed a “cartel” to monopolize comedians’ copyrights with the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin and artists including Andrew Dice Clay, Bill Engvall and Ron White, shattering years of industry practice.

A related Pandora filing said that if the comedians win, the company and other streaming services may have to scrap comedy altogether.

The comedians’ attorney said Friday that they are aware of the counterclaim and will “respond appropriately.” An attorney for Pandora said he was not authorized to comment, and SiriusXM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The comedians sued Pandora in February, arguing they had not received a “fraction of a penny” from Pandora for airing their material, and sought millions of dollars each in damages.

The lawsuits said Pandora’s licenses to the comedians’ recordings did not include their underlying jokes and that the company broke off negotiations with Word Collections over those rights last year.

Pandora responded Thursday that it had “always met its copyright obligations to comedians” by paying millions to the owners of the recordings, who shared them with the comedians.

The company also alleged that Word Collections had consolidated comedians’ “naturally competing rights” into a “monopoly portfolio”. He said the organization had added the rights to several other major comedians to its portfolio, including Billy Crystal, Sinbad and Milton Berle, and streaming services would soon be unable to continue offering comedies without a license. general on his part.

Pandora said Word Collections has created “hold-up power” over services like Pandora that it can exploit by “drastically increasing” the price it has to pay for comedy recordings.

The case is In re Pandora Media LLC Copyright Litigation, US District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:22-cv-00809.

For Pandora: Paul Fakler by Mayer Brown

For the actors: Richard Busch of King & Ballow

Read more:

Robin Williams and George Carlin’s Estates Sue Pandora Over Copyrighted Jokes

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.