Sirius Satellite Wins Appeal
Long Ago, before the merger of Sirius and XM, U.S. Electronics was a hardware distributor for Sirius Satellite Radio. The company made and distributed Sirius Satellite radio products under the XACT name badge in an exclusive deal with Sirius. At some point along the way, U.S. Electronics started another company that cut a deal to make radios for XM. Sirius took exception to this move citing exclusivity, and the relationship between Sirius and U.S. Electronics rapidly deteriorated. Sirius stopped using U.S. Electronics, and U.S. Electronics sued.
During the merger process, some allege that U.S. electronics comments about open platforms was simply the company being a thorn in the side of Sirius. Sirius successfully got the case taken out of the courts by citing an arbitration clause in the contract. The issue went before an arbitrator and Sirius prevailed.
The next bit of news in this drama could not be imagined. Despite the loss, U.S. Electronics appealed the arbitration decision citing that the chairman of the arbitration panel improperly failed to disclose the relationship between his son, who is a congressman, and respondent (Sirius). According to petitioner, after Sirius and XM Satellite Radio announced their proposed merger agreement, the chairman’s son publicly supported the move, but the chairman never disclosed the relationship.
It is being reported that the Attorney general of the State of Florida is investigating Sirius XM Radio for their automatic subscription renewal practices. Also under scrutiny is Sirius XM’s subscriber retention efforts. Various Florida agencies have allegedly received over 200 complaints from consumers who feel that they are being billed for services they did not order.
Here we go again, it has only been a few months since the
Music FIRST, and organization dedicated to fair and equitable royalties in the audio entertainment sector is asking terrestrial radio to join them in ensuring that artists get a fair and equitable royalty when their music is played.
In the midst of a judges ruling that 
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