Comedians’ Feud With Streaming Giants Asks: Who Can Use My Joke?

Comedy legend George Carlin was known for his “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine, and a foul-mouthed recording at the center of the Supreme Court’s 1978 landmark ruling on indecent speech over the airwaves.

But Carlin’s estate says the music streaming giants that dominate today’s audio market fail to recognize that he owned those jokes.

The estate is part of a series of recent lawsuits brought by comedians against Pandora Media LLC that may reveal how the streaming industry deals with novel licensing issues around the growing popularity of spoken word content.

Six comedians, including Ron White ...