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Hall & Oates are locked in a mysterious lawsuit against each other, with Daryl Hall already winning a restraining order against musical partner John Oates.
The case, filed by Hall on Nov. 16 in Nashville court, concerns either a “contract” or “debt,” but little else is known about the case because it was filed under seal — a maneuver used when court documents contain sensitive information.
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The day after Hall headed to court, the judge overseeing the case issued a temporary restraining order against Oates, but there are no details about what the injunction bans the singer from doing. The lawsuit also names Oates’ wife, Aimee, in her role as a trustee of her husband’s investment trust.
The case was first reported Monday (Nov. 20) by Philadelphia magazine. Billboard confirmed its existence by reviewing court records in the Davidson County Chancery Court. An attorney for Hall, and reps for both singers, did not return requests for comment on Wednesday.
Since teaming up as a pair of Philadelphia singers in 1972, Hall & Oates have hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a whopping six times, first with “Rich Girl” in 1977 and then with “Kiss On My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.” The pair have 10 more top 10 hits on the chart, as well as four albums that reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
As explained by Philadelphia, the duo have already broken up and reunited several times, sometimes going years without playing together. But they recently founded the HoagieNation Festival in Philadelphia and headlined the event in 2017, 2018 and 2021.
With details of the recent lawsuit under seal, speculation about the dispute swirled on Wednesday. TMZ pointed to a quote from Hall on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last year in which he said: “You think John Oates is my partner? … He’s my business partner. He’s not my creative partner.” Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the pair had “played only a handful of dates in 2022” and none in 2023.
Last year, Hall told the Los Angeles Times that it can be “very annoying” to operate as a musical duo. “Everything you do is juxtaposed against another person. Try doing that sometime. I don’t want to use the word ‘emasculating,’ because that’s male, but it takes away your individuality.”
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose was hit with a lawsuit Wednesday over allegations that he sexually assaulted a Penthouse model in 1989.
In a complaint filed Wednesday in New York court, attorneys for Sheila Kennedy claim that Rose “used his fame, status, and power as a celebrity and performer in the music industry to gain access to manipulate, control, and violently sexually assault” her.
The alleged attack – in a New York City hotel room in February 1989 — has caused her to suffer “severe emotional, physical, financial and psychological distress” ever since, Kennedy’s lawyers say.
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“Kennedy has experienced symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder whenever she hears Rose’s name or the music of Guns N’ Roses,” her attorneys wrote. “Other sexual encounters have drawn her right back to the night that Rose had assaulted her.”
A rep for Rose did not immediately return a request for comment.
The case against Rose is the latest in a string of sexual misconduct lawsuits filed over the last month against men in the music industry, including industry executives like L.A. Reid and superstar artists like Sean “Diddy” Combs. The spike in cases is due to the looming expiration on Thursday of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year window for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations.
In her complaint against Rose, Kennedy makes graphic allegations of sexual assault.
After first meeting the rock star at a nightclub, Kennedy says Rose invited her back to a party at his hotel room, along with his friend David Andrew “Riki” Rachtman and another model. After providing his guests with “cocaine, champagne, and alcohol,” the lawsuit claims Rose then “pushed Kennedy against the wall and kissed her.”
“Kennedy found Rose attractive and did not mind this encounter,” her lawyers write. “She was open to sleeping with him if things progressed and if they continued to find each other attractive.”
But Kennedy says the night then got darker – first when she witnesses Rose having “painful” sex with the other model, then when she thought he was encouraging group sex. After she exited the room, she claims Rose stormed into a rage, dragged her back into the room, through her onto the bed, and bound her hands.
“Rose then sexually assaulted Kennedy,” Kennedy’s lawyers write. “Rose forcibly penetrating Kennedy’s anus with his penis. Rose made no attempt to ask for or check that Kennedy was consenting. He treated her like property used solely for his sexual pleasure. He did not use a condom.”
Faced with the ongoing attack, Kennedy’s lawyers say she “felt she had no escape or exit and was compelled to acquiesce” to the assault. “She understood that the safest thing to do was to lie in bed and wait for Rose to finish assaulting her.”
Read Kennedy’s full lawsuit here:
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Sean “Diddy” Combs is accused of rape amid an ongoing wave of music industry sexual abuse lawsuits; Shakira settles her $15 million tax evasion case on the eve of trial; UMG defeats a lawsuit filed by artists over its lucrative ownership stake in Spotify; and more.
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THE BIG STORY: Diddy Sued As Music #MeToo Wave Continues
Following a string of abuse cases against powerful men in the music industry, Sean “Diddy” Combs was sued by R&B singer and longtime romantic partner Cassie over allegations of assault and rape — and then settled the case just a day later.
In a graphic complaint, attorneys for Cassie (full name Casandra Ventura) claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical beatings and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated. Near the end of their relationship, Ventura claimed that Combs “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
Combs immediately denied the allegations as “offensive and outrageous.” He claimed Cassie had spent months demanding $30 million to prevent her from writing a tell-all book, a request he had “unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
Read the full story on the lawsuit here.
Just a day after it was filed, Combs and Ventura announced that they had reached a settlement to resolve the case. Though quick settlements can happen in any type of lawsuit, it’s pretty unusual to see a case with such extensive and explosive allegations end just 24 hours after it was filed in court. “I wish Cassie and her family all the best,” Combs said in a statement. “Love.”
Both sides quickly put their spin on the settlement. A former staffer at Cassie’s law firm sent out a statement arguing that the quick resolution was “practically unheard of” and suggesting it showed the “evidence against Mr. Combs was overwhelming.” Combs’ lawyer, Ben Brafman, put out his own statement reiterating that a settlement — “especially in 2023” — was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”
Read the full story on the settlement here.
The case against Combs is the most explosive sign yet that, six years after the start of the #MeToo movement, the music industry is currently experiencing something of a second iteration.
Sexual assault lawsuits were filed earlier this month against both former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow and label exec Antonio “L.A.” Reid, and in October longtime publishing exec Kenny MacPherson was sued for sexual harassment. Before that, sexual misconduct allegations were leveled at late Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun; Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter; singer Jason Derulo; and ex-Kobalt exec Sam Taylor.
Many of the recent cases have been filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a statute that created a limited window for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations. With that look-back period set to end on Thursday (Nov. 23), more cases could be coming in the next few days. Stay tuned…
Other top stories this week…
UMG WINS CASE OVER SPOTIFY STAKE – A federal judge dismissed a class action against Universal Music Group that challenged the fairness of its 2008 purchase of shares in Spotify. The case, filed by ’90s hip-hop duo Black Sheep, accused the company of taking lower-than-market royalty rates in return for a chunk of equity that’s now worth hundreds of millions. But the judge ruled that such a maneuver — even if proven true — wouldn’t have violated UMG’s contract with its artists.
A$AP ROCKY TO STAND TRIAL – A Los Angeles judge ruled that there was enough evidence for A$AP Rocky to stand trial on felony charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator outside a Hollywood hotel in 2021. The 35-year-old hip-hop star’s lawyer vowed that “Rocky is going to be vindicated when all this is said and done, without question.”
SHAKIRA SETTLES TAX CASE – The Columbian superstar agreed to a deal with Spanish authorities to settle her $15 million criminal tax fraud case that could have resulted in a significant prison sentence for the singer. After maintaining her innocence for five years, Shakira settled on the first day of a closely-watched trial: “I need to move past the stress and emotional toll of the last several years and focus on the things I love,” she said.
ROD WAVE MERCH CRACKDOWN – The rapper won a federal court order empowering law enforcement to seize bootleg merchandise sold outside his Charlotte, N.C., concert, regardless of who was selling it. He’s the latest artist to file such a case to protect ever-more-valuable merch revenue following Metallica, SZA, Post Malone and many others.
MF DOOM NOTEBOOK BATTLE – Attorneys for Eothen “Egon” Alapatt fired back at a lawsuit that claims he stole dozens of private notebooks belonging to the late hip-hop legend MF Doom, calling the case “baseless and libelous” and telling his side of the disputed story.
“THE DAMAGE WILL BE DONE” – Universal Music Group asked for a preliminary injunction that would immediately block artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC from using copyrighted music to train future AI models while their high-profile case plays out in court.
DIDDY TEQUILA CASE – In a separate legal battle involving Diddy, a New York appeals court hit pause on his lawsuit against alcohol giant Diageo that accused the company of racism and failing to adequately support his DeLeon brand of tequila. The court stayed the case while Diageo appeals a key ruling about how the dispute should proceed.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has won the dismissal of a closely-watched class action that challenged the fairness of its 2008 purchase of shares in Spotify — a case that accused the company of taking lower-than-market royalty rates in return for a chunk of equity that’s now worth hundreds of millions.
The lawsuit, filed last year by the members of the ’90s hip-hop duo Black Sheep, claimed that UMG had secured its now-lucrative stake in the then-nascent streamer by signing an “undisclosed, sweetheart deal” that left artists underpaid to the tune of $750 million. UMG has called the claims “patently false.”
In a decision Monday (Nov. 20), U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ruled that even if UMG had taken below-market royalty rates from Spotify in return for equity, doing so would not have breached its contracts with artists — which give the music giant “unfettered discretion” to license its recordings as it sees fit.
“Plaintiffs argue that UMG exceeded the bounds of its discretion under the contract by making an undisclosed licensing deal in exchange for Spotify stock, for which UMG is withholding artists’ rightful share … of the proceeds UMG reaped,” the judge wrote. “But they do not square that conclusion with UMG’s unlimited right to license their work.”
Black Sheep members Andres “Dres” Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean sued in January, claiming Universal acted in “bad faith” when it secretly acquired a 5% stake in the “fledgling streaming service” in 2008 for just a few thousand dollars. The real payment to Spotify, the lawsuit claimed, had been UMG’s willingness to accept “substantially lower royalty payments” — an arrangement that benefited UMG and Spotify but “shortchanged artists” and “deprived” them of fair royalties.
“Universal concealed from artists that it acquired Spotify stock and that royalty payments were depressed as a result,” lawyers for the duo wrote in their complaint. “Over time, the value of the Spotify stock that Universal improperly withheld from artists has ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars.”
When the case was filed, Universal called the claims “patently false and absurd.” In later court filings, the company flatly denied the core allegation: “UMG disputes that the equity stock acquired in 2008 was part of the consideration that Spotify provided for a license to UMG’s music catalog.”
Reps for both UMG and Black Sheep did not return requests for comment on Tuesday.
The major music companies all acquired equity in Spotify during the streamer’s early days. According to a 2018 report by Music Business Worldwide, the then-Big Four music companies (Universal, Warner, Sony and EMI) plus Merlin paid just €8,804 total for a combined 18% of the streamer divvied up between them. The role that royalty rates played in that deal, and whether artists would eventually see some of the profit, was hotly debated for years.
After Spotify went public in 2018, it started to become clear just how valuable those stakes had become. Sony Music sold 50% of its shares for $768 million in April 2018, followed by Warner selling its entire stake for $504 million in August 2018. Both later made good on previous pledges to disburse some of the proceeds to artists, although reportedly with differing stipulations.
Universal has yet to sell its shares in Spotify, but it made a similar pledge in March 2018. Later that year, when Taylor Swift signed with the company, she reportedly required that UMG further promise to distribute the money to artists regardless of unrecouped balances — meaning artists will be paid regardless of whether they still owe the label money.
But in their lawsuit, Black Sheep argued that such promises were not good enough. They said Universal had already wronged many of its artists in one of two ways — simply by taking lower rates and thus reducing their royalty payments, or by failing to disburse the profits of their equity stakes as royalties.
In Monday’s ruling dismissing the case, Judge Rochon said she did not even need to decide whether or not those allegations were true. Instead, she simply ruled that even if they were true, Universal would still not have violated its record deal with Black Sheep.
“The contract’s plain language does not support plaintiffs’ theories,” the judge wrote about the allegedly reduced rates, noting that the deal gave UMG the “sole, exclusive and unlimited right” to license the recordings. “Given this wide discretion, there is no basis upon which to find that UMG breached the contract by accepting a lower royalty from Spotify.”
Judge Rochon also rejected the argument that UMG should have accounted for the equity profits when paying artists, saying the contract only requires payment for revenue that is “solely attributable” to their specific songs.
“Plaintiffs cannot directly trace UMG’s alleged acquisition of Spotify stock to the use or exploitation of their work alone,” the judge wrote. “UMG did not breach the contract by failing to account for its value when paying Plaintiffs their royalties.”
Even beyond the merits of the lawsuit, the judge also said she would have dismissed most of it for a far simpler reason: That it had been filed far past the statute of limitations. If the case had moved forward, Rochon said it only would have applied to royalty payments made after January 2021, not those reaching back all the way to 2008.
A Los Angeles judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence for A$AP Rocky to stand trial on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator outside a Hollywood hotel in 2021.
Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar made the ruling at a preliminary hearing, after hearing roughly a day and a half of testimony. Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The 35-year-old hip-hop star, fashion mogul and two-time Grammy nominee is in a relationship with Rihanna, with whom he has two young sons.
Villar said “the totality of the video and testimony” shows there is sufficient evidence for the defendant to go to trial. She emphasized that preliminary hearings have a much lower evidence standard than a trial.
Rocky, sitting in the courtroom, showed no visible reaction.
“We’re not disappointed, not surprised, we expected to go to trial, we’ve been planning for trial all along,” Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said outside court. “Rocky is going to be vindicated when all this is said and done, without question.”
At the first day of the hearing, which resumed Monday after a long delay, Terell Ephron testified that he and Rocky, a friend since childhood, had belonged to the same collective of musicians and artists at their New York high school.
He said their relationship had started to go sour and resulted in the standoff in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, when he said Rocky first pulled a gun on him, and in a later confrontation fired shots that grazed Ephron’s knuckles.
Tacopina established while questioning a police detective that seven officers who searched a sidewalk and street about 20 minutes after the shots were allegedly fired found no evidence of the shooting, and that a pair of 9 mm shell casings in police possession were recovered by Ephron, who returned to the scene about an hour after the standoff.
Tacopina played body camera video of the officers, who searched the ground for about 10 minutes. Ephron, who first went to police to report the incident two days later, turned over the shell casings, which the detective said had no recoverable fingerprints on them.
Prosecutors showed a separate video from near the scene where no people are initially visible, but what sounds like two gunshots can be heard. Then a man comes running around a corner, then slows to a walk. The man’s identity is not clear in the video, but LAPD Detective Frank Flores testified they have established it is Rocky.
Flores testified under Tacopina’s questioning that no 9 mm pistol was recovered when a search warrant was served on Rocky.
Prosecutors showed a still from surveillance video showing a man in a hooded sweatshirt whose face is not visible holding what appears to be a gun, along with another image from the same video showing the face of the man in the sweatshirt, with no gun visible. Flores testified that the combined images led them to establish it was Rocky.
Tacopina, who is also representing Donald Trump in his New York criminal case and others, pressed the detective on the weapon, suggesting police had no way of knowing whether it was a loaded or even real gun.
“That gun or whatever it was was not tested, right?” Tacopina asked. “No, it was never recovered,” Flores said.
Tacopina asked, “You’re not sure if it’s an operable gun or a non-operable gun or whatever?”
“Without having it, I can’t tell you whether it’s operable,” the detective replied.
Tacopina also tried to cast doubt on the minor injury to Ephron’s hand, questioning why he waited until he returned to New York to seek medical treatment.
He showed the detective a photo of the scraped fingers and said, sarcastically, “It’s a miracle he survived that shooting.”
The judge admonished him, one of several times she told Tacopina to change his tone.
Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in the case in April, and charged in August. He arrived in the courtroom Monday morning wearing a dark suit, sunglasses and a face mask, after spending the weekend at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race, where he had a prominent role as Puma’s creative director in the clothing brand’s partnership with F1.
He has released little music in recent years, and has become better known as the romantic partner, fellow fashion influencer and co-parent of Rihanna, with whom he had a second son in May. His first two studio albums in 2013 and 2015 both went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Rocky also became an unlikely cause for then-President Donald Trump, who said he was trying to get the rapper freed and returned to the U.S. when he was jailed after a brawl in Sweden in 2019. He was found guilty of assault at trial but was given a “conditional sentence” that meant no additional jail time.
In California courts, preliminary hearings like these are a sort of miniature version of a trial, with only a judge deciding whether sufficient evidence exists to move forward. The standard of proof for doing so is far lower than what’s required for criminal guilt.
The leaders in perhaps the largest known YouTube royalty scam in history, Jose “Chenel” Teran and Webster “Yenddi” Batista Fernandez, have been ordered to pay more than $3.3 million in restitution to their victims. The amount is just a fraction of the $23 million in total royalties the two fraudsters siphoned from mostly Latin music makers, including Don Omar, Julio Iglesias, Prince Royce and Anuel AA, from about 2016-2021.
In total, the duo’s company MediaMuv fraudulently claimed to be the rights holder of over 50,000 sound recording and composition copyrights. Proceeds from this scam were then used by Batista and Teran to fund their lavish lifestyles, including Lamborghinis, real estate, diamond-encrusted jewelry and other luxuries, until their indictment in November 2021. They were indicted on 30 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
The two will split the $3.3 million they are ordered to pay back to victims; one source explained that the money will be paid out slowly each month after their release from prison. Earlier this year, Teran was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and Batista was given four years.
The court is ordering Teran and Batista to pay just a small sampling of the many songwriters and artists who are owed royalties as a result of the scam. It stipulates that Regalias Digitales — a rights management firm that represents a number of the victims — is owed nearly $1.4 million, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — which also represents many of the victims — is owed more than $1.2 million, Jose Luis Perales is owed $153,000, Los Caminantes is owed more than $149,000, Nancy Ramirez is owed more than $100,000, Vagon Chicano is owed $98,000, Grupo Mandingo is owed $67,000, Grupo Ladron is owed almost $56,000, SPARX is owed $49,000, Don Omar is owed nearly $21,000, El Ojo is owed $15,000, INAMU — Argentina’s National Institute of Music — is owed $11,000 for its catalog of artists, Pappo is owed almost $2,000 and La Renga is owed over $700.
The latest court document reveals that Reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny was also a victim of Teran and Batista’s false royalty claiming, which they conducted under the company name MediaMuv. The thieves stole $500 from the star, which they have been ordered to pay back.
Representatives for Regalias Digitales and the RIAA did not respond to Billboard’s requests for comment.
INAMU told Billboard it learned of Batista and Teran’s scam from its partners at AdRev, a digital rights management firm that is now part of Downtown Music. At the time, INAMU was working with AdRev to collect royalties on behalf of its catalog, and the organization subsequently got in touch with prosecutors. The Argentinian institute — which controls the rights to a recorded music catalog that includes Leon Giaco and Seru Giran — no longer works with AdRev.
AdRev was also a business partner of Teran and Batista. Over the course of the duo’s five-year scam, AdRev helped claim the duo’s royalties. To date, AdRev has not been accused of any wrongdoing by prosecutors, and Batista admitted to sending three falsified contracts with companies that “purportedly” managed artists to AdRev “for the purpose of deceiving [AdRev] into allowing [MediaMuv] to continue [its] fraudulent operation.” However, a previous Billboard investigation into the $23 million scam revealed that AdRev executives were warned of Teran and Batista’s suspicious ownership claims on many occasions but continued to work with MediaMuv despite those emails.
Shakira agreed to a deal with Spanish authorities on Monday (Nov. 20) on the first day of a $15 million tax fraud trial in Barcelona that could have resulted in a significant prison sentence for the singer. According to the Associated Press, after maintaining her innocence for five years, the star agreed to a last-minute agreement, telling the presiding magistrate, José Manuel del Amo, that she accepted the agreement reached with prosecutors.
Shakira answered “yes” to confirm her acknowledgement of six counts of failing to pay the Spanish government 14.5 million euros (about $15.8 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014. Under the agreement, Shakira will receive a suspended three-year sentence and pay a $7.6 million fine.
In a statement shared with Billboard, Shakira said that throughout her career she has always strived “to do what’s right and set a positive example for others. That often means taking the extra step in business and personal financial decisions to procure the absolute best counsel, including seeking the advice of the world’s preeminent tax authorities such as PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, who advised me from the start, and subsequently Ernst & Young Global Limited.”
Unfortunately, she added, despite those efforts she said Spanish tax authorities pursued a case against her, “as they have against many professional athletes and other high-profile individuals, draining those people’s energy, time, and tranquility for years at a time.”
Shakira said she was determined to defend her innocence at trial where her lawyers were confident she’d prevail, but decided to finally resolve the matter with the “best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight.”
According to the AP, the trial that would have included more than 100 witnesses over the next few weeks adjourned after just eight minutes. In July, prosecutors said they would seek an eight year prison sentence and a fine of $26 million for the 46-year-old singer, with the case hinging on where Shakira lived during the period in question. Prosecutors alleged that the star spent more than half of that time in Spain and should have therefore paid takes on her worldwide income in the country despite listing the Bahamas as her official residence; tax rates are much lower in the Bahamas than in Spain.
“I need to move past the stress and emotional toll of the last several years and focus on the things I love – my kids and all the opportunities to come in my career, including my upcoming world tour and my new album, both of which I am extremely excited about,” Shakira wrote in the statement. “I admire tremendously those who have fought these injustices to the end, but for me, today, winning is getting my time back for my kids and my career.”
In July 2022, Shakira turned down a deal offered by prosecutors to settle the case, saying at the time that she “believes in her innocence and chooses to leave the issue in the hands of the law.” The singer’s spokespeople had previously said she already paid all that she owed plus an additional $3.2 million in interest.
Shakira’s defense team said in November 2022 that she had not spent more than 60 days a year inside Spain during the period in question; they said she would have needed to have spent half the year in Spain to be considered a fiscal resident. Her defense argued that she was away from Barcelona for long stretches due to a 2011 world tour and spent time in the U.S. when she was on The Voice.
Prosecutors disagreed, with the judge writing in 2021 that he found there was “sufficient evidence of criminality” for the case to go to trial. In a separate investigation, Spanish state prosecutors charged Shakira in September with alleged evasion of 6.7 million euros in tax on her 2018 income. Spain has cracked down on soccer stars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the past decade for not paying their full taxes; both were found guilty of evasion but avoided prison time after their sentences were suspended.
Shakira (born Shakira Esabel Mebarak Ripoll) has two children with Barcelona soccer star ex Gerard Piqué; the couple lived together in Barcelona before ending their 11-year relationship last year.
At Thursday’s 2023 Latin Grammy awards, Shakira performed “Acróstico,” an emotional, open letter to her children and gave a shout-out to her fans all over the world at the awards show in Seville, Spain. “I want to share this Grammy with my colleagues with whom I have had the pleasure of working and learning,” the Colombian singer said in acceptance speech for best pop song (“Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vo. 53”).
“With my Latin audience in Spain, in Colombia, in the United States, in Latin America. The Latin public that has taken me to the highest heights, those places I dreamed of since I was a child and to whom I owe everything,” she added. “I also want to share this with my Spanish public who has been with me through thick and thin … who have never stopped giving me love and support for a single day. I will never forget that. This is for you.”
One day after Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former romantic partner and R&B singer Cassie Ventura sued him for years of alleged physical abuse and even rape, the pair have resolved the claims she filed in Manhattan federal court.
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“I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” Ventura said in a statement issued late Friday night (Nov. 17) by her attorney, Douglas Wigdor. “I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.”
Combs responded with a statement, adding, “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. Love.” No terms were disclosed and the release states that “the parties will have no further statements.” When reached by Billboard, Wigdor declined to comment further. Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment or to verify the resolution.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for Ventura claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical beatings and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated.
According to the complaint, after she attempted to separate herself from him in 2018, Combs “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
“Ms. Ventura has now fully escaped Mr. Combs, but the harm that the assaults and sexual abuse he caused her to experience for nearly a decade will forever haunt her,” wrote Cassie’s attorney Douglas Wigdor, who has filed a number of high-profile sexual abuse cases. “She cannot, however, continue to live in silence about what she endured. Mr. Combs remains immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous.”
Combs’ attorney, celebrity defense lawyer Brafman, said his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” alleging that for the last six months, Ventura had demanded $30 million “under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.” In the statement, Brafman continued, “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”
Wigdor responded that Combs had offered Ventura “eight figures” to prevent her from filing the lawsuit, an offer she rejected.
Ventura, who had an on-and-off public relationship with Combs for 11 years until they split in 2018, says that she met the hip-hop mogul in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37. After he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label, she says Combs “lured” her into a romantic relationship – albeit one in which he “asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life.”
During the relationship, Ventura says she suffered “episodes of horrific abuse,” including times when he would fly into an “uncontrollable rage” and “beat Ms. Ventura savagely.” She says he would remind her of his ability to harm her, including by requiring her to carry his gun in her purse.
The suit also accuses Combs of blowing up a car belonging to Kid Cudi in 2012 after the rapper expressed interest in Ventura. “Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” Ventura’s lawyers write. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
The case was filed under newly enacted laws in New York and California that revised the time limits for bringing abuse lawsuits, creating limited windows for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations. In New York, the look-back window closes later this month.
In a statement issued tonight, Wigdor added, “I am very proud of Ms. Ventura for having the strength to go public with her lawsuit. She ought to be commended for doing so.”
Universal Music Group (UMG) wants a federal judge to immediately block artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC from using copyrighted music to train future AI models, warning that the “damage will be done” by the time the case is over.
A month after UMG sued Anthropic for infringement over its use of copyrighted music to train its AI models, the music giant on Thursday demanded a preliminary injunction that will prohibit the AI firm from continuing to use its songs while the case plays out in court.
The music giant warned that denying its request would allow Anthropic “to continue using the Works as inputs, this time to train a more-powerful Claude, magnifying the already-massive harm to Publishers and songwriters.”
“Anthropic must not be allowed to flout copyright law,” UMG’s lawyers wrote. “If the Court waits until this litigation ends to address what is already clear—that Anthropic is improperly using Publishers’ copyrighted works—then the damage will be done.”
“Anthropic has already usurped Publishers’ and songwriters’ control over the use of their works, denied them credit, and jeopardized their reputations,” the company wrote. “If unchecked, Anthropic’s wanton copying will also irreversibly harm the licensing market for lyrics, Publishers’ relationships with licensees, and their goodwill with the songwriters they represent.”
UMG filed its lawsuit Oct 18, marking the first major case in what is expected to be a key legal battle over the future of AI music. Joined by Concord Music Group, ABKCO and other music companies, UMG claims that Anthropic – valued at $4.1 billion earlier this year — is violating copyrights en masse by using songs without authorization to teach its AI models learn how to spit out new lyrics.
“In the process of building and operating AI models, Anthropic unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works,” lawyers for the music companies wrote. “Publishers embrace innovation and recognize the great promise of AI when used ethically and responsibly. But Anthropic violates these principles on a systematic and widespread basis.”
AI models like the popular ChatGPT are “trained” to produce new content by feeding them vast quantities of existing works known as “inputs.” Whether doing so infringes the copyrights to that underlying material is something of an existential question for the booming sector, since depriving AI models of new inputs could limit their abilities. Content owners in many sectors – including book authors, comedians and visual artists – have all filed similar lawsuits over training.
Anthropic and other AI firms believe that such training is protected by copyright’s fair use doctrine — an important rule that allows people to reuse protected works without breaking the law. In a filing at the Copyright Office last month, Anthropic previewed how it might make such argument in UMG’s lawsuit.
“The copying is merely an intermediate step, extracting unprotectable elements about the entire corpus of works, in order to create new outputs,” the company wrote in that filing. “This sort of transformative use has been recognized as lawful in the past and should continue to be considered lawful in this case.”
But in Thursday’s motion for the injunction, UMG and the music companies sharply disputed such a notion, saying plainly: “Anthropic’s infringement is not fair use”
“Anthropic … may argue that generative AI companies can facilitate immense value to society and should be excused from complying with copyright law to foster their rapid growth,” UMG wrote. “Undisputedly, Anthropic will be a more valuable company if it can avoid paying for the content on which it admittedly relies, but that should hardly compel the Court to provide it a get-out-of-jail-free card for its wholesale theft of copyrighted content.”
A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was sued Thursday by R&B singer and longtime romantic partner Cassie over allegations that he repeatedly physically abused her over the course of a decade, including one instance of rape.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for Cassie (full name Casandra Ventura) claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical beatings and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated.
According to the lawsuit, after she attempted to separate herself from him in 2018, Combs “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
“Ms. Ventura has now fully escaped Mr. Combs, but the harm that the assaults and sexual abuse he caused her to experience for nearly a decade will forever haunt her,” wrote Cassie’s attorney Douglas Wigdor, who has filed a number of high-profile sexual abuse cases. “She cannot, however, continue to live in silence about what she endured. Mr. Combs remains immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous.”
In a statement, Combs’ attorney – well-known celebrity defense lawyer Ben Brafman – said his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”
“For the past 6 months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman said. “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”
In his own statement, Wigdor disputed Brafman’s accusations about the settlement negotiations: “Mr. Comb’s offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and decided to give a voice to all women who suffer in silence. Ms. Ventura should be applauded for her bravery.”
Ventura, who had an on-and-off public relationship with Combs for 11 years until they split in 2018, says that she met the hip-hop mogul in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37. After he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label, she says Combs “lured” her into a romantic relationship – albeit one in which he “asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life.”
“He provided unprecedented avenues for success for the aspiring artist, but in return, demanded obedience, loyalty, and silence,” her lawyers write in her complaint.
During the relationship, Ventura says she suffered “episodes of horrific abuse,” including times when he would fly into an “uncontrollable rage” and “beat Ms. Ventura savagely.” She says he would remind her of his ability to harm her, including by requiring her to carry his gun in her purse.
After years of “again and again” attempting to “escape his tight hold over her life,” Ventura says that in September 2018, she and Combs went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu “for what she believed would be a discussion about concluding their relationship for good.” Instead, he “forced himself into her apartment and tried to kiss Ms. Ventura” as she “told him to stop and attempted to push him away.”
“Mr. Combs then forcibly pulled off Ms. Ventura’s clothing and unbuckled his belt,” she says. “He proceeded to rape Ms. Ventura while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
Combs is the latest high-profile music executive to face disturbing accusations of sexual wrongdoing over the past month. Former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow was sued over allegations of sexual assault last week; the the same day, label exec Antonio “L.A.” Reid was hit with similar accusations. Last month, longtime publishing exec Kenny MacPherson was sued for sexual harassment, accused of subjecting a woman to an “onslaught of unwanted sexual advances.”
All three of those cases, like the new case against Combs, were filed under newly enacted laws in New York and California that revised the time limits for bringing abuse lawsuits, creating limited windows for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations. In New York, the look-back window closes later this month.
In her complaint against Combs, Ventura specifically thanked lawmakers for passing those new laws, saying they would allow her to seek “justice” after she had been “unable to speak up against the years of abuse she endured.”
“After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships,” Ventura said in a statement. “With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life.”
