Why George Lopez Is Suing Pandora

George Lopez is the latest comedian to file a lawsuit against music streamer Pandora. Lopez joined Lewis Black, Andrew Dice Clay, and the estates of George Carlin and Robin Williams, who are seeking compensation from Pandora through court action. Preliminary hearings in the consolidated cases will begin in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles at the end of this month, The Wrap reported Tuesday.

The comedians claimed they have been underpaid or not paid at all by Pandora after their material was streamed thousands of times on the platform. They accused Pandora of knowingly publishing comedy routines without proper licensing and admitted in regulatory filings that it was a risky move to offer their material to its 55 million users. Several comedians filed their lawsuits back in February, while Black filed his in July. Lopez filed his on Tuesday.

The lawsuits are noteworthy because the comedians aren't just seeking payment for their recorded performances, but for the written material too. The case could end up changing how comedians are paid, even though this is how musicians have been paid for decades. Lopez's lawsuit presents this issue front and center.

"Just like with music, there are two copyrights involved in the recorded performance of a literary copyrighted work: a copyright in the sound recording, and a separate copyright in the underlying spoken word composition," the lawsuit reads. "Anyone wishing to obtain the right to do so, must get a license from the respective copyright owner in both of these copyrights, and pay agreed-to royalties."

Lopez listed 37 of his recorded performances that have been streamed thousands of times on Pandora. "As of the date of filing, [Pandora] advertised that Mr. Lopez had 117,000 monthly listeners," the lawsuit reads. "If each listener listened to only one (1) available work per month, that's 1,404,000 broadcasts or/interactive streams per year at a minimum. Unfortunately, Mr. Lopez has not received a fraction of a penny for any of these broadcasts or streams."

Lopez is seeking an accounting of profits Pandora made from streaming his work and is asking for damages, reports TMZ. In the alternative, he is asking for $5.5 million in statutory damages for alleged infringement.

Pandora has argued a ruling in the comedians' favor would change industry precedent and denied never paying them. The company claims it paid "millions" in royalties to comedians' record labels. (However, in Black's lawsuit, he said he is the only copyright owner and has not seen a penny from Pandora.) Pandora did not comment on Lopez's lawsuit and instead directed The Wrap to its counterclaim, which accused the plaintiffs of wanting a "radical" change to how payments are calculated.

Outside of the courthouse, Lopez's next big project is Lopez vs. Lopez, a new NBC sitcom set to debut on Friday, Nov. 4. The show co-stars Lopez's daughter Mayan Lopez as his on-screen daughter and Selenis Leyva as his ex-wife. Matt Shively, Brice Gonzalez, Laci Mosley, and Kiran Deol also star.