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NewJeans is asking an American court to force Google to unmask an anonymous YouTube user so that the person can be criminally prosecuted under South Korea’s strict libel laws for posting “false and defamatory videos” about the K-pop band.
In court documents filed last month, attorneys for NewJeans requested that a California federal judge issue a subpoena requiring Google to reveal the user’s identity. The band wants the info because they are seeking criminal charges in South Korea – a far more serious penalty for defamation than exists under U.S. law.
“The applicants are members of a female K-Pop group, who have come under attack by an anonymous individual posting false and defamatory videos on YouTube,” the group’s lawyer wrote in the March 27 petition, which was obtained by Billboard. “Unfortunately, without the YouTuber’s personally identifiable information the criminal case cannot be fully prosecuted.”
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The band’s target is the anonymous owner of a YouTube account called “7th Grade in Middle School,” which attorneys for NewJeans say has “engaged in name-calling or other mocking behavior” and has posted as many as 33 defamatory videos that have been viewed more than 13 million times. They cited one particularly “derogatory” post, which allegedly claimed that NewJeans member Min-ji Kim was the “eldest daughter of a Vietnamese farmer.”
HYBE, the parent company of NewJeans’ label ADOR, did not immediately return a request for comment on the legal proceedings. The recent court filings, which were refiled in court last week, were first reported by The New York Times.
The case illustrates striking differences between U.S. and South Korean protections for free speech. Under American law, defamation is a civil wrong that can lead to damages, but one that’s sharply limited by the First Amendment. To win such a case, public figures like the members of NewJeans would need to prove that the YouTube user knowingly made false statements, a burden that’s intentionally difficult to satisfy.
In South Korea, on the other hand, defamation is a criminal offense that can be “punished by imprisonment with labor for up to seven years,” and even fully true statements can face criminal penalties. In 2015, a United Nations watchdog called out South Korea‘s “increasing use of criminal defamation laws to prosecute persons who criticize government action.” In 2022, a U.S. State Department report warned that public figures in Korea had used the country’s libel laws to “restrict public discussion and harass, intimidate, or censor private and media expression.”
NewJeans isn’t the first K-pop group to use those laws. In 2019, HYBE (then Big Hit Entertainment) filed criminal defamation cases over BTS, alleging the targets had behind “personal attacks” on the band. In 2022, Big Hit did so again over “malicious postings” about BTS, asking the group’s famous fan “army” to help gather evidence. YG Entertainment, the label behind Blackpink, has also filed its own complaint against “internet trolls,” accusing them of “spreading groundless rumours about our singers.”
According to the recent U.S. court filings, NewJeans’ label ADOR filed a criminal complaint with police in Seoul in March, but the case has stalled because they cannot identify the actual person behind the YouTube account. The group’s attorneys say they sent a request for such information to Google, but that the American tech giant has refused to hand it over.
A spokesman for Google declined to comment when reached by Billboard on Thursday. In a policy statement regarding government requests for personal information, the company says: “Google carefully reviews each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws. If a request asks for too much information, we try to narrow it, and in some cases we object to producing any information at all.”
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: Mary J. Blige’s 1992 “Real Love” draws a new copyright case over an oft-sampled funk song with a long history in both hip hop and music law; Madonna strikes back against angry fans who sued over delayed concerts; Morgan Wallen is charged with multiple felonies after allegedly throwing a chair from the roof of a Nashville bar; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Sampling Saga
If you’ve listened to any significant amount of rap music over the past 30 years, you’ve probably heard “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers — a legendary piece of hip-hop source material with a drum track that’s been sampled or interpolated literally hundreds of times, including by Run-DMC, Biggie, Tupac, Dr. Dre and many others.
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And, allegedly, by Mary J. Blige.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Tuff City Records claimed that Blige’s 1992 classic “Real Love,” which spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100 in 1992, featured an unlicensed sample from “Impeach.” The case claims that Universal Music Publishing has “repeatedly refused” to pay for the underlying composition, even though UMG Recordings has already agreed to a deal covering the master.
The new lawsuit is the latest chapter in a story dating back several decades, starting with a seminal 1991 case over an LL Cool J song that also featured “Impeach” – a legal battle that would ultimately prove to be the beginning of fundamental changes to how the music industry and the courts treated sampling.
Other top stories this week…
MADONNA CONCERT CLASH – The Material Girl fired back at a class action lawsuit filed by New York City fans who are angry that her concerts started later than scheduled, asking for the case to be dismissed. Madonna’s attorneys argued that needing to “wake up early the next day for work” is not the kind of “cognizable injury” someone can sue over, and that “no Madonna fan” has a “reasonable expectation” that her shows will start on time.
LAST NIGHT (ALLEGEDLY) – Morgan Wallen was arrested in Nashville and charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment over accusations that he threw a chair off the six-story roof of a popular bar on the city’s bustling Broadway street, allegedly narrowly missing several police officers. He was later released on bond, and his lawyer told Billboard he was “cooperating fully with authorities.”
RAMONES MOVIE LAWSUIT – Joey Ramone‘s brother (Mickey Leigh) responded to a lawsuit filed by Johnny Ramone’s widow (Linda Cummings-Ramone) over a planned Netflix movie about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and flimsy” and arguing that she actually signed off on such a project years ago.
AI COPYRIGHT DISCLOSURE BILL – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require AI companies to disclose which copyrighted works were used to train their models, or face a financial penalty. The measure would not directly require payment to artists, but would certainly make it easier for copyright owners to file infringement cases against AI companies demanding such compensation.
NEW DIDDY ABUSE CASE – Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with yet another sexual abuse case, this time centering on allegations that his son Christian “King” Combs assaulted a staffer on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean. The case, one of many against Diddy over the past six months, claimed that he “encouraged an environment of debauchery” that enabled his son’s behavior.
ACCUSER’S LAWYER CRITICIZED – Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney who has filed two of the pending sexual abuse cases against Combs, could be facing potential discipline himself. In a scathing ruling last week, a federal judge in an unrelated lawsuit referred him to the court’s grievance committee over his “pattern of behavior” in which he allegedly “improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”
ROD WAVE ARRESTED OVER SHOOTING – The rapper was arrested on gun charges in Florida over alleged connections to a shooting last month at a sports bar in St. Petersburg. At a press conference after the arrest, police claimed that the alleged assailants used a getaway car registered to Wave and fled to a house he had rented, where they later discovered two assault rifles and other evidence.
MORE BIZARRE DONDA CLAIMS – Kanye West was hit with another lawsuit filed by a former employee at his Donda Academy, this time accusing him of discriminating against Black staffers. Like the several previous cases from former staffers, the case included bizarre allegations about conditions inside the school – including that West told students to “shave their heads” and that he “intended to put a jail at the school” where students could be “locked in cages.”
The highly publicized trial kicked off in November 2023.
Morgan Wallen was arrested and jailed on Sunday night (April 7) in Nashville after the chart-topping country singer allegedly hurled a chair off the six-story roof of a popular bar on the city’s bustling Broadway street. On Monday morning (April 8), Billboard received a statement from Wallen’s attorney, Worrick Robinson of Worrick Robinson Law, confirming […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) is facing a lawsuit that claims a 1992 Mary J. Blige hit featured an unlicensed sample from a 1973 funk song that’s famous for being sampled in dozens of other tracks, including releases from Biggie and Tupac as well as a recent Doja Cat tune.
In a complaint filed Thursday (April 4) in Manhattan federal court, Tuff City Records accused Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) of copyright infringement over Blige’s “Real Love,” which spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100 in 1992 and reached a peak of No. 7 on the chart.
The allegedly-copied song? “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers — a legendary piece of hip-hop source material with a drum track that’s also been sampled or interpolated by Run-DMC, Dr. Dre and many others. Most recently, it was featured in Doja Cat’s 2023 track “Can’t Wait.”
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In the complaint, Tuff City’s attorneys say they have “advised defendant repeatedly of the presence of the uncleared sample” in “Real Love” but that Universal has done nothing about it.
“Defendant has repeatedly refused to engage plaintiff in substantive negotiations to rectify the foregoing, let alone agreed to compensate Plaintiff for the past infringement or on an ongoing basis,” wrote Tuff City’s attorney Hillel Parness in the complaint.
Blige herself is not named in the lawsuit nor accused of any wrongdoing.
In a bizarre wrinkle, Tuff City claims that UMG Recordings — a subsidiary of UMG and the owner of the master to “Real Love” — has already reached an agreement regarding the use of the uncleared sample on the sound recording. But they say the music giant’s publishing arm has refused to do the same as it relates to the underlying composition.
“Defendant’s refusal to cooperate with plaintiff is difficult to reconcile with the fact that plaintiff reached an agreement with UMG Recordings,” Tuff City’s attorneys write.
Tuff City, which owns a large catalog of old songs, is no stranger to copyright litigation. Over the past fifteen years, the company has sued over tracks by Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Christina Aguilera, Frank Ocean and others, typically alleging that they featured unlicensed samples or interpolations.
That process has not always gone smoothly. In 2014, a judge dismissed a case over Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” on the grounds that any alleged sample was “barely perceptible” after multiple listens. In 2018, another judge ordered Tuff City to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees spent by Beastie Boys defending a case that was “clearly without merit.”
The new case is also not the first time Tuff City has sued over “Impeach the President.” Way back in 1991, the company sued Sony Music and Def Jam over claims that producer Marley Marl had illegally sampled the track on LL Cool J tracks “Around the Way Girl” and “Six Minutes of Pleasure.”
At the time, the lawsuit was a novel legal attack on sampling, which had long been at the core of hip-hop but had rarely involved paying for licenses or seeking authorization. In a 1992 article, the New York Times warned that Tuff City’s lawsuit over “Impeach the President” could fundamentally change hip hop, forcing rappers and producers to clear every element used in their albums — a formidable idea at the time.
“A single rap album can include dozens of samples, from single drumbeats to full musical phrases,” the New York Times article reads. “Finding the copyright owners, negotiating fees or royalties and gaining legal clearance is time consuming and can add tens of thousands of dollars to the production costs.”
Tuff City’s case eventually settled on confidential terms, but it proved to be a sign of things to come. In the years since, federal courts have ruled that nearly any amount of sampling of sound recordings counts as copyright infringement. As a result, labels and artists today attempt to clear almost any direct sampling in their songs and will typically remove those elements if a deal can’t be reached.
Of course, Blige’s “Real Love” came out just months after Tuff City filed its case against LL Cool J, and well before such practices had become universal. It’s unclear why the company waited more than 30 years to sue over it, but copyright law has a so-called “rolling” statute of limitations that allows for such long-delayed actions.
A spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment.
Sean “Diddy” Combs and his son Christian “King” Combs are facing a new lawsuit claiming the younger Combs sexually assaulted a staffer on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles court, Grace O’Marcaigh says that she was working as a stewardess on a superyacht charted by the Combs family in December 2022 when an intoxicated Christian served her “spiked tequila shots” and then assaulted her.
“Prior to being sexually assaulted by defendant Christian Combs, plaintiff planned to work the entirety of her career in hospitality and the yachting industry,” O’Marcaigh’s attorneys write. “Unfortunately, those plans have been derailed due to the trauma plaintiff continues to have as a result of the assault.”
The new lawsuit was filed by the same attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, who filed a similar case against Combs in February on behalf of producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones. The new complaint claims that Jones was present for the alleged attack, and that he recorded some of the incident.
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In addition to those two cases, Combs has been hit with a slew of other allegations of sexual assault and other wrongdoing over the past six months, including a quickly-settled case filed by his ex-girlfriend Cassie and a still-pending lawsuit filed a woman who claims Combs raped her when she was 17. The rapper is also facing an apparent federal criminal investigation, which led to raids of his homes last month. Combs has strongly denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
In the new lawsuit, O’Marcaigh claims that Christian Combs arrived to the chartered yacht via smaller boat at 5 am on Dec. 28, 2022. She says he then “insisted” that she take shots of tequila, which she quickly came to suspect had been spiked with drugs. After she attempted to exit the situation, O’Marcaigh says he “violently” grabbed her and began to grope and assault her.
Because Jones was present and recording, O’Marcaigh says she has a recording in which she tells the younger Combs “excuse me, you don’t touch my legs like that” and “you can take your hand off my ass.”
Later in the same evening, O’Marcaigh says Combs demanded that she find him a place to sleep. When she took him to the yacht’s cinema, she says he “blocked her from exiting,” then “became physical and aggressive” even as she “pushed him back constantly.”
“Defendant C. Combs then took off all of his clothes,” O’Marcaigh’s attorney says. “His penis was erect, and he grabbed her arms and was trying to force plaintiff to perform oral copulation on him.”
The lawsuit does not claim that the elder Combs participated in the assault. But she says he orchestrated a “coverup” that resulted in her eventual firing from her job. And she says he bears ultimate responsibility for his son’s actions because he chartered the yacht.
“Defendant S. Combs fostered and encouraged an environment of debauchery,” O’Marcaigh’s attorneys write. “He intentionally created an unsafe environment that gave license to [Christian] to believe that he was free to sexually assault plaintiff.”
A representative for Sean Combs did not immediately return a request for comment.
An attorney who filed one of the several sexual abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs is now facing potential discipline himself after a federal judge in another case sharply criticized him for filing suits designed to “garner media attention” and “embarrass defendants.”
In an order issued Wednesday (April 3) in a separate lawsuit, Judge Denise Cote referred Tyrone Blackburn to the grievance committee for New York’s federal court district – an entity that decides whether attorneys have violated court rules. She cited his conduct in five different lawsuits, saying Blackburn’s filings in those cases had featured “glaring deficiencies.”
“A reasonable inference from Blackburn’s pattern of behavior is that he improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly,” Judge Cote wrote. “Indeed, his submissions to this court have been rife with disturbing allegations against the defendants and defense counsel.”
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The order, which came in a legal malpractice lawsuit Blackburn filed last year, referred him to the grievance committee for the Southern District of New York for “such action as it deems appropriate.”
Judge Cote’s ruling is notable because Blackburn is currently serving as lead counsel to Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer who filed a sweeping abuse lawsuit against Combs in February. The lawsuit is one of several such cases filed against Combs, in addition to a federal criminal investigation that led to raids of his homes last month. Combs has strongly denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
In an email to Billboard on Thursday, Blackburn said: “Not sure how this is at all relevant to Rodney Jones’ case, or any other case I have. This will not have any impact on my ability to proceed in Mr. Jones’ case. Although Judge Cote’s decision was a referral to the SDNY’s grievance committee, and not a sanction, I plan on appealing the decision.”
In his lawsuit last month, Jones accused Combs of repeated sexual assault and harassment while Jones was working as a producer on the rapper’s 2023 The Love Album. But he also went further, claiming that Diddy and others had violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal RICO statute best known for criminal cases against the Mafia. As part of those claims, he named several other prominent people as members of that alleged illegal conspiracy, including Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and former Motown CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam.
Blackburn has already faced scrutiny over those accusations filed on Jones’ behalf. In her response to the lawsuit, Combs’ attorney, Shawn Holley, took the unusual step of calling out her opposing counsel by name, saying that Blackburn had “ignored” evidence of Combs’ innocence before filing the case.
“Our attempts to share this proof with Mr. Jones’ attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, have been ignored, as Mr. Blackburn refuses to return our calls,” Holley said at the time. “We will address these outlandish allegations in court and take all appropriate action against those who make them.”
Last week, attorneys for UMG took similar aim at Blackburn. Arguing that Grainge had “utterly nothing to do” with the allegations against Diddy, the label’s lawyers said the claims were so “offensively false” that they would seek to punish Blackburn himself for filing them.
“A license to practice law is a privilege,” wrote Donald Zakarin, a longtime music industry litigator who represents UMG and Grainge. “Mr. Blackburn, plaintiff’s lawyer, has misused that license to self-promote, gratuitously, falsely and recklessly accusing the UMG defendants of criminal behavior.”
UMG’s filing last week said the company would seek legal sanctions against Blackburn under federal Rule 11, which requires lawyers to make a “reasonable inquiry” into allegations they file in court. That’s the same rule that Judge Cote cited Wednesday in her ruling against Blackburn, saying “his actions in this and prior cases indicate a repeated failure to meet his Rule 11 obligations.”
In arriving at that conclusion, the judge cited multiple instances in which Blackburn allegedly filed cases in the wrong court without properly investigating whether it was the right jurisdiction, as well as an incident in which he called a defense attorney “a disgusting racist” amid a dispute over picking a mediator. The judge also cited an allegation from an opposing lawyer that Blackburn had specifically filed a case in federal court, rather than state court, “because doing so would make the press more likely to pick up on it.”
“Significant resources have been spent by judges of the court and defendants named in actions he has filed to address glaring deficiencies in his filings,” Judge Cote wrote in her ruling on Wednesday. “A referral to this court’s Grievance Committee is warranted.”
It’s unclear how long such a case will take before the grievance committee renders a decision, or what kind of disciplinary measures the body might hand down.
Madonna is firing back at a class action lawsuit filed by New York City fans who are angry that her concerts started later than scheduled, arguing that needing to “get up early to go to work” the next day is not the kind of legal “injury” someone can sue over.
In a motion filed Wednesday, the Material Girl’s lawyers urged a federal judge to dismiss the case, in which ticket buyers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden accused her of breaking the law by starting three December shows in Brooklyn more than two hours later than the scheduled.
That lawsuit made headlines because the plaintiffs justified their claims in part by arguing that they “had to get up early to go to work” the next day. But in their response, Madonna’s lawyers said that’s hardly the kind of legal “injury” that can result in a lawsuit.
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“Plaintiffs speculate that ticketholders who left the venue after 1 a.m. might have had trouble getting a ride home or might have needed to wake up early the next day for work,” wrote Madonna’s lawyers. “That is not a cognizable injury.”
Far from suffering harm, Madonna’s lawyers say Hadden “raved” about the show in question on social media, posting that the concert was “incredible, as always!” on his Facebook page. “In other words, the concert met or exceeded his expectations.”
An attorney for the defendants did not immediately return a request for comment.
Fellows and Hadden filed their case in January, claiming Madonna and concert giant Live Nation breached contracts with buyers and violated state laws covering false advertising and unfair business practices by starting the shows late. The case, a proposed class action, aims to represent thousands of others who allegedly faced a similar experience.
At issue are three concerts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, stops on Madonna’s Celebration Tour, that had originally been scheduled for July but were shifted to December due to the singer’s illness. Fellows and Hadden said they expected their show to start on time, and “would not have paid for their tickets had they known that the concerts would start after 10:30 p.m.”
“Defendants failed to provide any notice to the ticketholders that the concerts would start much later than the start time printed on the ticket and as advertised,” attorneys for the two men wrote.
But in Wednesday’s response, attorneys representing both Madonna and Live Nation said that anyone buying a concert ticket is well aware that the show likely won’t start at the exact time printed on the ticket.
“Nowhere did Defendants advertise that Madonna would take the stage at 8.30 p.m., and no reasonable concertgoer—and certainly no Madonna fan—would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time,” the star’s lawyers wrote. “Rather, a reasonable concertgoer would understand that the venue’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time, one or more opening acts may perform while attendees arrive and make their way to their seats and before the headline act takes the stage, and the headline act will take the stage later in the evening.”
Rather than suffering harm, they say Fellows and Hadden “got just what they paid for: a full-length, high-quality show by the Queen of Pop.”
“Plaintiffs do not allege Madonna’s performance was subpar, that her performance was worth less than what they paid, or that they left the concert before watching her entire performance,” her lawyers wrote. “Indeed, plaintiffs do not plead any injury that they themselves suffered by spending the night at an ‘incredible’ concert.”
Rod Wave was arrested on two counts of illegal possession of a weapon or ammo in Manatee County, Florida on Wednesday (April 3), according to arrest records viewed by Billboard.
The St. Petersburg Police Department hosted a press conference in the aftermath of the arrest alleging that Rod — born Rodarius Marcell Green — was connected to a gang-related shooting in Florida that left four bystanders injured outside of Sonic Sports Bar in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Mike Kovacsev explained that three of the apprehended assailants (Christopher Atkins, Keith Westby and Kevontre Wesby) are allegedly connected to the Young Gangsters gang and that two more are in the process of being arrested after law enforcement discovered 60 shell casings of ammo at the site of the shooting, which occurred on Sunday night (March 31).
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Kovacsev claimed that the getaway vehicle used in the shooting was registered to Rod and that the Palm Avenue residence the group fled to was also allegedly registered to the “Heart On Ice” singer.
“The vehicle they fled in was registered to [Green],” Kovacsev said. “They also fled back to a residence at 500 Palm Avenue North … That residence was rented by [Green] as well. We executed a search warrant at that location on Monday night and we recovered two assault rifles, two pounds of marijuana and a great deal of evidence we’re going to utilize the case going forward.”
Police determined that “another residence” was rented by Rod in Palm Meadow and shifted the focus to that location, where they executed a search warrant. Subjects leaving that residence were arrested on weapons charges by undercover detectives and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are hopeful and anticipate potentially other evidence to be taken out of the vehicles as we do search warrants over the next couple of days,” Kovacsev added. “We went and had the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office execute that warrant and we located a number of other assault rifles and a handgun inside that residence.”
The police chief said that along with the firearms, money and jewelry were also seized. More charges are also possibly looming related to the shooting and narcotics.
Rod’s weapon possession charges listed him as a convicted felon, which his attorney, Bradford Cohen, vehemently denies. Cohen also denies Wave’s connection to the shooting.
“[Rod] has nothing to do with a shooting,” Cohen tells Billboard. “There was nothing found in his car and he is not a convicted felon.”
Cohen and another of Rod’s attorneys, Mark Rankin, released a joint statement on Cohen’s Instagram claiming that the judge agreed that the evidence didn’t support the charges and that the Florida singer was set free on Wednesday.
“Rod was arrested and detained with absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing,” Cohen captioned the Instagram post featuring a photo of Rod. “The police claimed he was a felon in possession of ammunition. Not only was he not in possession of ammunition, a basic check of public records would have easily demonstrated to the police that he was not a convicted felon. The prosecutor and the judge immediately agreed that the evidence did not support the charge and set him free the same day.”
Rod was previously arrested in his hometown of St. Petersburg in May 2022 on a felony charge of battery by strangulation, which was dropped weeks later. That arrest stemmed from an April 2022 incident involving Wave and his ex-girlfriend, who alleged that the singer entered her home and choked her, according to the arrest warrant.
Billboard has reached out to the St. Petersburg Police Department for additional information.
This is a developing story.
Joey Ramone‘s brother is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by Johnny Ramone’s widow over a planned Netflix movie about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and flimsy” and filing his own countersuit against her.
Johnny’s wife (Linda Cummings-Ramone) sued Joey’s brother (Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh) in January over allegations that he had “covertly” developed an “unauthorized” biopic, believed to be Netflix’s announced moving starring Pete Davidson as Joey. In the lawsuit, Linda said that any “authoritative story of the Ramones” would require her sign-off.
But in a sharply-worded response filed last month, Mickey’s attorneys argued that Linda had, in fact, already greenlit such a movie many years ago – and that her “baseless” lawsuit was simply one more step in a years-long plan to “install herself as the Queen of the Ramones.”
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“Ms. Cummings-Ramone’s main purpose is to embarrass, harass, and destroy the integrity of Mr. Hyman, create an utterly false narrative about him, rewrite her role in the history of the Ramones, and win a popularity contest in which, in her mind, she takes over … the legacy of a band of which she never was a member and had nothing to do with creatively,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote in the March 15 filing.
A representative for Linda did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
Joey (real name Jeffrey Ross Hyman) and Johnny (real name John William Cummings) were not actually brothers, and they had a notoriously chilly relationship during their decades as bandmates. In the years since the two passed away, that feud has seemingly continued between Mickey and Linda.
As the executors of Joey and Johnny’s respective estates, Mickey and Linda each own half of Ramones Productions Inc., the holding company that controls the band’s music and other assets. But that partnership has not gone smoothly, featuring multiple lawsuits and arbitrations over the past decade.
The latest legal scuffle was triggered in part by the plans for a movie version of I Slept With Joey Ramone, Mickey’s 2009 memoir, which Netflix announced in April 2021. In her January lawsuit, Linda said that such a project would need the sign-off of Ramones Productions and not just Joey’s estate.
“Ms. Ramone objects to defendants’ attempt to create a Ramones film without her involvement — not to be obstinate, but rather based on defendants’ disregard for [Ramones] assets and their conduct and treatment of Ms. Ramone and her late husband,” Linda’s attorneys wrote at the time. “To permit defendants alone to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones would be an injustice to the band and its legacy.”
But in his recent response, Mickey argued that the planned movie is about him and his brother, and is “not intended to be a ‘Ramones movie’ or a Ramones biopic.” And he pointed to a 2006 agreement in which he argued that Linda had already granted her approval to a film based on the I Slept With Joey Ramone book: “Ms. Cummings-Ramone did consent to Defendants’ development and production of a motion picture,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
In a copy of the alleged agreement filed in court, Ramones Productions granted approval to a company called Rosegarten Films to produce a movie based on the then-unpublished memoir. It’s unclear if that specific company is involved in the currently-planned film, but television and film producer Rory Rosegarten was listed an executive producer when Netflix announced the movie in 2021.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Mickey echoed his argument that the movie was not going to be about the Ramones as a band.
“The fact is, I did not write ‘I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir’ about my brother’s band and had no intention whatsoever of doing that,” he said. “I wrote a story about growing up with a big brother who endured a severe somatic malady at birth, and later developed neurogenic problems. That led to doctors making diagnoses that he would never be able to function on his own in society — and that big brother, with support from his family, proved those doctors wrong as he went on to do great things with his life and become an inspiration to millions.”
The recent court filings came as part of Mickey’s so-called answer to the Linda’s lawsuit, denying the many accusations leveled against him in her lawsuit. Along with it, he filed his own counterclaims against her, arguing that it was Linda who had actually breached their partnership agreement with a “pattern of egregious conduct.”
The counterclaims set the stage for potentially years of litigation over Linda and Mickey’s back-and-forth accusations. Just like Linda’s original lawsuit, Mickey’s new case covers a wide range of alleged wrongdoing in their joint management of the Ramones assets well beyond just the proposed movie.
“She is driven by an alternate agenda, including her own fame and vanity, as well as a self-serving desire to obstruct projects and control RPI for reasons which conflict with her fiduciary duties and cause her to avoid any modicum of cooperation with Mr. Hyman,” Mickey’s lawyers wrote.
