TSN reporter reveals a large lawsuit involving several AHL teams including the Rockford Icehogs

The lawsuit circles around the illegal use of music tracks that have come from the APM catalog which were used on their social media channels with no proper licensing. His report goes on to say that the company has reached out to the American Hockey League has stated they will not admit any wrongdoing and not obtain proper licensing.

The lawsuit will likely land on the feet of the NHL as NHL teams own all American Hockey League teams. The penalties for copyright infringement are quite severe as the music company had mentioned that there could be $150,000 in damages for every song that was infringed upon. The company also stated that over 100 examples of music was used by the league and without permission.

Copyright infringement with music had been in the news for well over 20 years as the rise of the digital age and the ability to acquire music through the Internet has had its share of lawsuits. It remains to be seen on how the NHL will handle this and whether they would acknowledge the lawsuit and go through the courts or contact the company and settle out of court with an agreement.

It's likely the NHL would like to quietly make this go away with an out of court settlement would be most likely the case.

Source: HockeyUnplugged