COLUMBUS, OH (CelebrityAccess) – Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) and parent company Designer Brands Inc. have filed a declaratory‑judgment lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The suit aims to prevent copyright infringement claims by Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music, and BMG regarding the use of music snippets in company social media posts.
Quotes from the Complaint
On the labels’ reversal of stance:
“The Labels, however, now seek to pull the rug out from under DSW’s business operations,” the complaint says, accusing the labels of changing their tune.
Regarding platform’s terms of service:
“The Terms of Service provided by Instagram and TikTok state that users can include music samples from Instagram’s and TikTok’s libraries when creating posts on user accounts,” and that these rules “do not distinguish between user accounts associated with individuals, businesses, or other groups or entities.”
On the labels’ motives:
DSW argues the suits are tactical: “The Labels’ threats to file copyright infringement lawsuits based on the DBI Entities’ lawful conduct are simply opportunistic attempts to extract still more money for copyrights on which they have already received full compensation.”
This filing seeks two key clarifications: that DSW’s social‑media posts are lawful under existing platform licenses, and that the labels can’t demand extra payments for music use when their licensing models already cover it. DSW is also pushing back against what it sees as an industry trend—labels targeting businesses rather than individuals for repeated, platform-licensed music use.
