A copyright lawsuit filed nearly two years ago prominently featured a bottom line underscoring a notably hefty figure. To wit: a songwriter’s $300 million compensation claim tied to an alleged rip off of his work. What Jamaican artist Michael May specifically claimed in his March 2018 federal filing was that a later work performed by singer Miley Cyrus is strikingly similar to his earlier penned song entitled “We Run Things.” That 1988 song predated Cyrus’ 2013 single “We Can’t Stop” by a quarter century. May’s core argument was that, while the two works are far apart concerning their date ..read more

Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic. He penned a piece on a recent musical trend for the New York Times earlier this week. It’s scathing. Put another way, let’s just say that Caramanica has a strongly negative viewpoint concerning the direction that successive jury verdicts in music copyright infringement cases are taking these days. His bottom-line conclusion: Court outcomes are getting things wrong, with repeated errors imperiling the music industry and its future creative output. Caramanica’s argument proceeds from the truism that new musical creations in the vast and established pop m ..read more

More than a few viewers of the classic 1989 film Back to the Future think that the star of the movie is not an actor but, rather, a design. They rest their claim specifically on the contours and ultra-distinct appearance of the legendary DMC 12. That vehicle featured prominently in the box-office smash. It was made by the DeLorean Motor Company, which subsequently declared bankruptcy. Company owner John DeLorean inked a trademark licensing deal with Universal Studios a few years following his firm’s demise. The pact granted Universal the continuing right to use the DMC 12 name and appearan ..read more

We note on our entertainment law website at the Law Offices of Barry K. Rothman that the passing of a loved one “who created a legacy in any art form can lead to many complex financial questions and legal concerns.” Just ask Vicky Cornell. Cornell is the widow of famed rock singer/composer Chris Cornell, who died in the spring of 2017. Cornell was both figuratively and literally the leading voice in the seminal band Soundgarden, which continues on as a performing unit in the wake of his passing. Things are not exactly amicable between surviving band members and the widow. In fact, hostilit ..read more

An instantly clear answer to the above-posed headline query in today’s blog post might be gleaned from just a quick scan of the multiple tomes devoted to royalty disputes that appear on shelves at legal bookstores. Collectively, they underscore this: Royalty-linked disagreement is – and always has been – at a seismic level in the realm of artistic performance. Rights holders in products ranging from movies and screenplays to books and music have clawed back for decades – indeed, centuries – against alleged wrongdoers seeking to unlawfully infringe their creative rights. Sometimes they win ..read more

Global media services company Spotify is a music colossus. It is known especially for its platform that allows users to access songs from a virtually limitless catalog via its so-called “streaming” platform. That comes with a fee, of course, with Spotify dutifully passing along royalty payments to copyright holders of streamed music. Spotify is sometimes lauded and vilified for its business activities, with critics in the latter camp alleging various acts of wrongdoing. A relatively common complaint is that the industry giant does not routinely pass along to music owners what they are just ..read more

The affiliate marketing industry might facially sound like an innocuous and unobjectionable realm, but a lawsuit recently filed by two entertainment industry A-listers stresses otherwise. Here’s what it is: the online playing field for industrious individuals and companies that earn commissions by directing Internet browsers to select e-commerce sites. Major commercial players (just think Amazon) rely heavily upon the efforts of affiliate markets driving traffic to their websites. And they pay those marketers handsomely when consumers’ visits result in sales. One study on the industry posi ..read more

Musical insiders will likely deem last Thursday a seminal moment for the music royalty industry. A statement issued in concert by two principals on November 14 referred to a contractual outcome concerning a top-tier concern as “a landmark achievement for every facet of the music industry.” The focal point of what is now stirring strong interest and excitement in the vast music industry is on music revenue management, specifically the agreed-upon system for distributing royalties. That has been a material problem in the past, especially following the industry entrance of huge business playe ..read more

Harry Shearer played the bassist in the iconic and much-beloved film “This is Spinal Tap,” a movie that retains vast global popularity decades after its 1984 release. Spinal Tap – a film about a fictional British rock group – continues to be a cash cow from myriad marketing standpoints. Shearer and his fellow Tap actors are of course well aware that cash registers continue to ring in connection with the film’s continued play, its soundtrack and licensing/merchandizing ventures. In fact, Shearer and his movie mates have assumed roles as litigants in recent years in multi-phased litigation that ..read more

Pay if you play. That is the bottom-line take of the venerable American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a nonprofit organization that has been safeguarding the rights of musical copyright holders for more than a century If you’re not readily familiar with that group, we suspect you’ll have an immediate “aha” moment upon seeing the shorthand acronym ASCAP. Various organizations across the United States and globally have sizable stables of musical talent that they protect by requiring consumers to pay for the right to hear copyrighted works. ASCAP is central in that universe. O ..read more