Ellen DeGeneres'' talkshow in copyright lawsuit

Ellen-DeGenereWashington, September 11 : Ellen DeGeneres'' daily U. S. talkshow has been hit with controversy as many record companies have filed a suit against the producers of the show for using popular songs without prior permission.

The suit is filed at Nashville''s U. S. District Court, in which record companies including Arista, Capitol Records, Sony and Warner Bros. Records are named as plaintiffs.

It is claimed that the use of more 1,000 songs during the host’s ‘dance over'' section violates copyright of the companies.

In the fun section the star strolls to her stage through the audience at the beginning of each show.

However, the defendants for the show allegedly told the companies that they didn''t "roll that way," on being questioned why they were not able to get the permission, Contactmusic reports.

But the suit replies to the statement, saying, "As sophisticated consumers of music, Defendants knew full well that, regardless of the way they rolled, under the Copyright Act, and under state law for the pre-1972 recordings, they needed a license to use the sound recordings lawfully."

It further adds that the show has used "recordings by virtually every major current artist of popular music," since it began its run in 2003.

Meanwhile, a representative for Telepicture''s Productions, the show''s production company, has said that the series has been trying to come to a solution with the record companies in recent months.

However, DeGeneres is not targeted personally in the lawsuit. (ANI)