Piracy Defiance and Composer Rights Collisions

This week’s stories highlight two very different but equally serious clashes in the music world. One involves mass digital piracy and a defied court order. The other centers on contractual rights and how film music can be licensed without a composer’s approval.

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ChaseLawyers Newsletter
February 17, 2026

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A piracy group is openly ignoring a federal court injunction and continuing to distribute millions of allegedly stolen Spotify tracks — escalating an already massive copyright lawsuit.

At the same time, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is asking for his music to be pulled from a documentary about Melania Trump, claiming Universal breached his composer agreement by licensing the score without consulting him.

Anna’s Archive defies court order and releases Spotify files

Despite a federal injunction issued last month, piracy activist group Anna’s Archive has begun distributing approximately 2.8 million Spotify tracks via torrent. The group allegedly obtained around 86 million files during a hack of Spotify’s platform last year and is now releasing them in batches — directly violating a New York court order prohibiting any hosting or distribution of the stolen material.

Spotify and major record labels previously filed a lawsuit seeking statutory damages that could theoretically reach trillions of dollars. The defendants have failed to respond and are now in default, while also potentially facing contempt of court for ignoring the injunction. Although the practical market impact may be limited, the case raises serious questions about enforcement, anonymity, and how courts handle large-scale digital piracy in the AI era.

Jonny Greenwood seeks removal of Phantom Thread music from Melania documentary

Jonny Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson are demanding that a piece from the Phantom Thread score be removed from the documentary Melania, directed by Brett Ratner. According to their statement, Universal licensed the track “Barbara Rose” for use in the film without consulting Greenwood — allegedly breaching his composer agreement.

While Greenwood does not own the copyright to the score, he claims the agreement required consultation before third-party licensing. The dispute highlights a recurring issue in film music: composers often lack ownership but retain contractual approval rights. Whether Universal was within its rights may depend entirely on how the composer agreement was drafted.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Anna’s Archive ignores court order and starts making stolen Spotify files available to torrent

Piracy group ignores court order and enables torrent downloads of hacked Spotify files, escalating a trillion-dollar lawsuit.

Jonny Greenwood Wants His Music Pulled From the Melania Movie

Composer says studio licensed Phantom Thread music for Melania film without consultation, allegedly breaching contract terms.

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