The Legal Beat
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: Lil Durk faces federal murder-for-hire charges over allegedly ordering his associates to kill a rival rapper; Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyer threatens legal action over false reports about Tory Lanez being declared “innocent”; Ye and Adidas reach a settlement to resolve legal disputes over the end of their Yeezy partnership; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Lil Durk Charged With Murder For Hire Plot
Two years after the rapper Quando Rondo was ambushed by gunmen at a Los Angeles gas station, federal prosecutors charged Chicago drill star Lil Durk with ordering the attack ––an assault they say was retribution for the 2020 killing of rising star King Von.
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The Chicago rapper (real name Durk Devontay Banks) was arrested as he attempted to flee the country on a private jet, hours after several of his Only the Family associates were indicted on similar charges over their alleged involvement in the attack, which left Rondo unscathed but saw his cousin killed in the crossfire.
Much like the ongoing case in Atlanta against Young Thug and his YSL group, prosecutors say Only The Family was not merely a well-publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk.
“Mr. Banks is charged with orchestrating a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the death of a rival’s family member,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Violent gun crime of this sort is devastating to our community and we will have zero-tolerance for those who perpetrate such callous acts of violence.”
For more, go read our full story here, which includes access to the actual charging documents unveiled against Durk.
Other top stories…
FAKE NEWS DEBUNKED – False claims circulated on social media over the weekend that a California appeals court had declared Tory Lanez “innocent” in the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. That’s not at all what actually happened, and now Megan’s attorney is threatening legal action over the “nonsense” that went viral: “They’re going to face consequences.”
DIDDY SUED YET AGAIN – Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with two new civil abuse lawsuits, including one that accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in a New York City hotel room in 2005. The second case accused the hip-hop mogul of similarly assaulting a 17-year-old would-be contestant on the reality television series Making the Band in 2008. Combs is currently in jail awaiting trial on sweeping federal criminal charges over decades of alleged sexual abuse.
CHAOS IN YSL CASE – Young Thug’s long-running Atlanta gang trial was once again thrown into chaos after a state’s witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury — a mistake the judge quickly attributed to “sloppiness” from prosecutors. The move left the judge contemplating whether to declare a mistrial and sparked plea deal negotiations between the government and the defendants. It’s only the latest delay in a criminal trial that has stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
YEEZY SETTLEMENT – Adidas reached a settlement with Ye (formerly Kanye West) to resolve all outstanding legal claims stemming from the company’s decision to end its partnership with the rapper and his Yeezy brand. The deal came two years after Adidas terminated its lucrative partnership with the rapper over his antisemitic statements and erratic behavior.
DEPOSITION DRAMA – The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino must sit for a deposition in the ongoing litigation over the 2021 disaster at the Astroworld music festival, rejecting Live Nation’s argument that the exec wasn’t closely involved in festival operations. Victims’ lawyers cited an email Rapino sent the night of the disaster ordering another employee to wait for more info before canceling the rest of the festival: “If 5 died we would cancel,” he wrote in the message.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Beyoncé’s attorneys once again asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register her daughter’s name as a trademark, more than 12 years after she and Jay-Z first sought to lock up the intellectual property rights “Blue Ivy Carter.” In the latest filing, they pushed back on concerns that consumers might confuse Blue Ivy’s name with another Blue Ivy: a single-store clothing boutique in Wisconsin that has used the name since before the young Carter was born.
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: 2 Live Crew wins a trial to take back control of its music catalog; Young Thug’s attorney wins a decision overturning his criminal contempt conviction; Diddy faces ever more accusations of sexual abuse; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Termination Determination
2 Live Crew won a rare courtroom showdown over copyright law’s “termination right” — a crucial federal provision that allows songwriters and artists to take back the rights to their music decades after they sold them away to a company.
Termination has been at the heart of recent lawsuits involving Cher, Brian Wilson and Dwight Yoakam, and both Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment faced class actions from artists pushing to take back their music en masse. Jay-Z recently invoked termination to win back his debut album, and it was also the core issue behind a new “landmark” copyright rule issued last year about who gets paid streaming royalties.
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2 Live’s dispute kicked off in 2020 when Uncle Luke (Luther Campbell) and the heirs of two co-members invoked termination against Lil Joe Records, which bought the band’s catalog out of bankruptcy in the 1990s. The label fought back by suing the group in federal court, arguing that termination didn’t apply to the five albums at issue in the case.
Such disputes rarely reach a jury. But at a trial earlier this month, attorneys for Lil Joe argued that the protections of the bankruptcy sale had trumped any termination rights held by the members. 2 Live’s attorneys told a different story — one of “deceit and dishonesty” by Lil Joe’s owner that “wouldn’t be out of place in a Netflix movie.”
In their verdict, the jurors sided with 2 Live, allowing them to regain much of their catalog. Go read our entire story here to find out more.
Other top stories this week…
CONTEMPT CLEARED – Georgia’s Supreme Court sided with Brian Steel, an attorney serving as lead counsel to Young Thug in the rapper’s never-ending Atlanta gang trial, and reversed a ruling earlier this year that had held him in contempt of court. The decision will close a bizarre chapter in which Judge Ural Glanville sentenced Steel to 20 days in prison for refusing to reveal how he’d learned of a secret meeting between the judge and prosecutors — an incident that later saw Glanville removed from the case. But it won’t end the trial, which is already the longest in Georgia state history and has no end in sight.
PHOTOG STRIKES AGAIN – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was hit with a lawsuit over allegations that the museum illegally displayed a copyrighted image of Van Halen snapped by veteran rock photographer Neil Zlozower. If that name sounds familiar, it should: Zlozower has filed more than fifty such lawsuits over the past decade, including cases against Universal Music Group, Spotify, Ticketmaster, Mötley Crüe and many others.
GOING HOME – Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory — a convicted drug trafficker and money-launderer involved in the early careers of rappers Jeezy and T.I. — was released from prison and will serve the remainder of his decades-long sentence in a halfway house. The rise and fall of Meech’s gang has been chronicled in 50 Cent’s Starz series BMF, on which Flenory’s son plays his father.
ALWAYS MORE DIDDY – Since you last heard from Legal Beat a week ago, there have three big developments in the story of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who currently stands accused of decades of sexual abuse:
Combs was hit with another wave of six civil lawsuits, including several alleging assaults as late as 2022 and one claiming he assaulted a 13-year-old girl. The cases were the latest from two attorneys who had already filed six such lawsuits and warned earlier this month that they represent at least 120 other alleged victims.
The new cases prompted Combs’ lawyer to ask the judge overseeing his criminal case to issue a gag order that would bar alleged victims and their attorneys from issuing “extrajudicial statements” about Combs to the press, arguing that such statements are threatening his right to a fair trial.
Separately in the criminal case, the Combs team demanded a court order forcing the government to reveal the names of his alleged sexual abuse victims, arguing he cannot fairly defend himself without knowing their identities: “The government is forcing him, unfairly, to play a guessing a game.”
RAP SCION ARRESTED – T.I.‘s 20-year-old son Clifford “King” Harris Jr. was arrested in Georgia on an open warrant stemming from 2022 charges of speeding, driving with a suspended license and DUI. The incident was sparked when King almost hit a police car as he was pulling out of a gas station; the officers reported that they smelled cannabis when they approached his car and that he was found with a gun on his hip.
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: Limp Bizkit sues Universal Music Group for $200 million over claims that the band has ‘never’ been paid royalties; a lawsuit against Nelly takes a twist as his former bandmates allegedly push back on the case; Barry White’s estate files a lawsuit over Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topper “Like That”; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Has Limp Bizkit Really Never Gotten Royalties?
At one point in the bombshell, $200 million lawsuit Limp Bizkit filed against Universal Music Group last week, the band’s attorneys explicitly asked the question that everyone was thinking as they read the case: “The band had still not been paid a single cent by UMG in any royalties until taking action against UMG, leading one to ask how on earth that could possibly be true.”
How on earth, indeed. How had one of the biggest bands of its era, which sold millions of records during the music industry’s MTV-fueled, turn-of-the-century glory days, still never have been paid any royalties nearly three decades later?
According to Limp Bizkit and frontman Fred Durst, the answer is an “appalling and unsettling” scheme by UMG centered on “systemic” and “fraudulent” policies that were “deliberately designed” to conceal royalties from artists and “keep those profits for itself.”
Scathing language aside, the lawsuit really appears to be a long-delayed dispute over recoupment.
Durst says that UMG repeatedly told him that Limp remained unrecouped — meaning its royalties still had not surpassed the amount the group had been paid in upfront advances. UMG allegedly told Durst that it had paid out a whopping $43 million in advances over the years, a huge figure that would go a long way to explaining the lack of royalties.
Limp Bizkit’s lawsuit says UMG didn’t provide “any back-up for this alleged amount” – and that the label essentially kept the band in the red with shady bookkeeping, including “intentionally concealing the true amount of sales” and “fraudulent accounting practices.”
“Where did this additional $199,676.00 charged to the account come from?” the band’s lawyers wrote at one point, referring to one such alleged inconsistency. “It seems to have come out of thin air to overdraft Limp Bizkit’s due and payable account in order to defraud Limp Bizkit and show an unrecouped account.”
UMG has not yet publicly commented on the allegations, so we’ll keep you updated when the music giant files its first formal response in court…
Other top stories this week…
ALWAYS MORE DIDDY – Since you last heard from Legal Beat one whole week ago, there have somehow already been four big developments in the story of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who stands accused of decades of sexual abuse. Here goes:
-Attorneys for the rapper filed their opening salvo in an appeal of a ruling denying him pre-trial release on bail, arguing the “sensationalism” of the case led the judge to keep him locked up over “purely speculative” concerns about witness intimidation. In the days since, the appeals court has already declined to issue a quick ruling releasing him; instead, the court will hear the case at normal pace and rule at some point in the next few months on whether he should be set free until trial.
-Less than a day after filing the appeal, Combs’s team accused the government of leaking evidence to the media in order to “taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.” Among other evidence allegedly shared with the press? The infamous surveillance video of Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie in 2016, which his lawyers say was leaked “to mortally wound the reputation and the prospect of Sean Combs successfully defending himself.”
-The judge set a May 5 date for the start of Combs’ criminal trial, in which he will face charges of racketeering and sex trafficking over what prosecutors say was a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” The schedule could still be pushed back, particularly if prosecutors file new charges or add defendants to the case, or if Combs eventually gets released on bail and chooses to waive his “speedy trial” right.
-Six new civil lawsuits were filed in Manhattan federal court, including one from a man who says he was sexually assaulted by Combs in 1998 when he was 16 years old and attending one of the rapper’s famed “white parties” in the Hamptons. The cases were the first in a wave of dozens of civil cases that are expected to be filed in the weeks ahead by Los Angeles attorney Andrew Van Arsdale and Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who earlier this month said they are representing at least 120 such alleged victims.
ST. LUNATICS REBEL – Weeks after Nelly’s former St. Lunatics groupmates sued him for allegedly cutting them out of royalties, an attorney for the star claimed that three of them had never approved the lawsuit in the first place. In a letter sent last month, Nelly’s attorney warned the lawyer who filed the case last month that Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb) had recently retained his services and had “informed me that they did not authorize you to include them as plaintiffs” and were “demanding you remove their names” from the case.
DR. DRE’S DR. DRAMA – Dr. Dre was hit with a lawsuit accusing him a waging a “malicious campaign of harassment” against a psychiatrist served as a marriage counselor and mediator for the rapper and his now-ex-wife Nicole Young. Dr. Charles J. Sophy says the rapper subjected him to a “barrage of threats” via text message, and even sent fake FBI agents to his home to intimidate him. Dre’s attorneys quickly fired back, saying Sophy only sued because Dre is currently seeking to have his medical license revoked over allegations of “dereliction of duties and incredible incompetence” during the divorce.
SAMPLE SPAT – Barry White’s estate filed a copyright lawsuit over allegations that a prominent sample at the heart of Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping “Like That” infringes the rights to a 1973 song by the legendary singer — but they didn’t actually file the case against those stars. Instead, they sued duo Rodney-O (Rodney Oliver) & Joe Cooley, the classic hip hop duo behind “Everlasting Bass,” the track that Future and Metro Boomin sampled.
NAME BLAME – Attorneys for Garth Brooks publicly disclosed the name of a woman who sued the country star for sexual assault, naming her as a defendant in a lawsuit that accuses the woman of extortion and defamation. The move drew a sharp rebuke from the woman’s lawyers, who said Brooks had “publicly named a rape victim” in order to “punish” her for speaking out.
THE CASE ISN’T ALRIGHT – A California appeals court sided with The Offspring in a long-running court case filed by former drummer Ron Welty, rejecting his claims that he was owed millions more from the punk band’s $35 million catalog sale to Round Hill Music. A Los Angeles judge rejected those accusations last year, and California’s Court of Appeals ruled that there had been “no reversible error” in that decision.
I WANT MY ROYALTIES BACK, ROYALTIES BACK – What’s going on in the Chili’s legal department? For the second time this year, the huge restaurant chain was sued over accusations that it used copyrighted music on social media without permission — this time by Universal Music Group over dozens songs by Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and other stars. The new case came shortly after the advertising-averse Beastie Boys sued Chili’s over the same thing back in July.
TAKING THE STAND – Amid a lawsuit claiming Martin Shkreli might leak copies of Wu-Tang Clan’s ultra-rare album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a federal judge ruled that the pharma exec must personally go to court and testify under oath about the fate of the album. Shkreli once owned the album, but was forced to forfeit to federal prosecutors after he was convicted of securities fraud.
YE LAWSUIT UPDATE – Ye (formerly Kanye West) was sued by Lauren Pisciotta, a former assistant who claimed that the rapper drugged and sexually assaulted her during a studio session he co-hosted with Diddy. Pisciotta already sued Ye in July for sexual harassment, breach of contract and wrongful termination, but she filed an updated version of the case that includes the Diddy-linked claims.
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: A deep dive into the case against Diddy with the help of R. Kelly’s prosecutors; sexual abuse allegations against country star Garth Brooks; a judge refuses to rule on the rights to Jay-Z’s debut album; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Diddy’s Case, Explained By R. Kelly’s Prosecutors
In many ways, the charges unveiled last month against Sean “Diddy” Combs mirror those brought in 2019 against R. Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 after a jury convicted him of decades of abuse. Both cases center on allegations that a powerful musician broke federal racketeering laws – usually aimed at mobsters – by building essentially an organized crime syndicate aimed at facilitating his own sexual abuse.
So to understand more, I dove deep into the Combs case this week with Nadia Shihata and Maria Cruz Melendez, two of the lead prosecutors who tried the case against Kelly. Now in private practice, Shihata and Cruz Melendez discussed the Combs case with Billboard in separate interviews – about how a case like this is built, who else might face charges, and what the fight ahead will look like. Go read our full story here.
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Other top stories this week…
STUNNING ACCUSATIONS – Country music star Garth Brooks became the latest music industry figure to face abuse allegations, leveled by a unnamed woman who says he sexually assaulted her while she worked for him as a hairstylist. The case came with an unusual twist: the revelation that it was Brooks who had filed a mysterious John Doe lawsuit last month, seeking to block the publication of allegations that he called “extortion.” In a statement strongly denying the accusations, Brooks said he was “incapable” of such conduct and would “trust the system” to clear his name.
NO IDEA, YOUR HONOR – Martin Shkreli told a federal judge he couldn’t remember all the people with whom he shared copies of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, an ultra-rare Wu-Tang Clan album that he once owned – and that it’s “highly likely” that other people still have copies of the (supposedly) one-of-a-kind work. The disclosure came amid a lawsuit filed against him by PleasrDAO, a digital art collective that purchased Once Upon after Shkreli forfeited it to prosecutors as part of his securities fraud conviction.
REASONABLE DOUBT DISPUTE – With a court-ordered auction looming to sell off Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, the judge overseeing the case said he would not rule on a thorny question of copyright law. That is: Can Jay-Z use copyright termination to retake control of the rights to his debut album Reasonable Doubt from Roc-A-Fella? That’s kind of a crucial question for the Dash auction, since the album is company’s only real revenue-generating asset. But the judge said the case was neither the time nor the place for such a ruling: “The court does not presently have jurisdiction over the validity of Carter’s copyright termination notice.”
THE PLAY MUST NOT GO ON – Ken Caillat, a music producer who worked on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, filed a copyright lawsuit against the creators of the hit Broadway play Stereophonic, claiming they stole material from his memoir about working on the legendary album. The lawsuit – which calls the play an “unauthorized adaptation” of his 2012 book — raises tricky questions about copyright protection and real-life stories.
R. KELLY AT SCOTUS – The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from R. Kelly over his 2022 convictions in Chicago on child pornography and enticement charges, leaving him with no further direct appeals from a verdict that saw him sentenced to 20 years in prison. The ruling effectively finalizes one of Kelly’s two sets of sex abuse convictions; the other — a September 2021 guilty verdict on racketeering charges brought by prosecutors in New York that resulted in a 30-year prison sentence — is still pending on appeal before a lower appellate court.
TIKTOK LAWSUIT – Attorneys general for more than a dozen states filed lawsuits against TikTok over allegations that the app – a key marketing tool in the modern music industry — is harming the mental health of young people. The lawsuits claim TikTok made its algorithm intentionally addictive, despite knowing that prolonged use will lead to “profound psychological and physiological harms” in children.
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: A civil war within the Fugees as Pras sues Lauryn Hill for fraud; the latest on Diddy’s legal drama, including an appeal and two new lawsuits; New York mayor Eric Adams hires Jay-Z’s lawyer to defend him against federal criminal charges; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Fugee Feud
The Fugees — a hip hop trio made up of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel — rose to fame in the mid-1990s with hits like “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not” and “Fu-Gee-La,” launching solo careers for all three. But 25 years later, it appears something is rotten in the state of Fugee.
In a scathing lawsuit Tuesday (Oct. 1) that took personal shots at Hill, Pras accused his bandmate of fraud and breach of contract. He claimed that she had exploited his need for cash amid mounting legal problems to get him to sign onto a plan for a 2023 tour in which she enriched herself at his expense.
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“It did not matter to Hill if she took full advantage of Michel’s vulnerability — her friend and creative partner of over 30 years,” his lawyers wrote. “In fact, she counted on exploiting that vulnerability to carry out her scheme.”
Michel also pinned the blame on Hill for the group’s recently canceled 2024 tour, which had been set to kick off in early August but was quietly called off just days before it was set to start. He cited her “gross mismanagement” as a key factor behind poor ticket sales.
Hill quickly responded with a detailed rebuttal, calling it “a baseless lawsuit” that was full of “false claims and unwarranted attacks.” She said Pras had omitted key details — like that she had expanded the tours specifically to help him pay his legal bills and had secured him advances that had not yet been paid back.
For more details on the lawsuit and Hill’s response, go read our entire story here.
Other top stories this week…
DIDDY, DIDDY & MORE DIDDY – It was a busy week for the indicted hip hop mogul, who stands accused of federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Most notably, his lawyers formally launched an appeal of a judge’s ruling denying him bail, marking their latest effort to get him released ahead of his trial. He was also hit with two new civil lawsuits, one from a woman who claims he raped her in 2001 at his New York City studio, and another from a Florida model who alleges he repeatedly drugged and sexually assaulted her over a four-year period. Oh, and 120 more victims might be suing him soon, if you believe press statements by a Houston plaintiff’s lawyer.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR DIDDY CASE? – If you want a quick primer on the immediate next steps in the case — how soon might the trial be? where is he being jailed? — go read my explainer on the situation.
HIZZONER HIRES JAY-Z’S LAWYER – Facing a federal indictment of his own, New York City Mayor Eric Adams hired Alex Spiro of the law firm Quinn Emanuel, a prominent litigator with extensive music industry experience and a client list including Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion and 21 Savage. For a detailed breakdown of Spiro’s music litigation history, go read our full story here.
BRITNEY PERFUME BATTLE – A cosmetics company called Give Back Beauty hit back hard at a recent lawsuit filed by Revlon, which accused the smaller company of working with four ex-Revlon execs to “sabotage” the company’s decades-old fragrance partnership with Britney Spears. In the response, Give Back argued that Revlon only filed the “baseless” lawsuit because it was upset that Britney made the choice to “reject” the industry titan and sign with a competitor.
SUCKER PUNCH SETTLEMENT – DaBaby settled a civil lawsuit over a 2020 incident in which he allegedly sucker punched a property manager named Gary Pagar during a music video shoot at the man’s Los Angeles mansion. The settlement, reached two months after he took a plea deal to avoid jail time over the same episode, will avoid the need for a trial that had been set to kick off in November.
YSL JUDGE HAS HAD IT – Nearly two years after the trial kicked off, the judge overseeing Young Thug’s sprawling Atlanta gang trial reached her boiling point with the prosecutors trying the case. At a hearing in which she appeared visibly frustrated, Judge Paige Reese Whitaker complained of “poor lawyering, “baffling” decisions and steps to repeatedly “hide the ball.”
AI LAW VETOED – California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models, a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models, but Newsom and other critics said it would have had “a chilling effect on the industry.”
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: Nelly faces a copyright lawsuit over his decades-old album Country Grammar; T.I. and his wife Tiny win a shocking $71 million jury verdict against a toymaker; the Michael Jackson estate takes legal action against a sexual abuse accuser; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: A Legal Blast From The Past
Nearly a quarter century after Nelly’s breakout album, he’s now getting sued over it – and by his childhood friends, no less. The case, filed by members of his early-career St. Lunatics group, claims that Nelly (Cornell Haynes) “manipulated” them into thinking they’d be paid for their work on the 2000 album Country Grammar, but that he ultimately cut them out of the credits and the royalty payments. “Every time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes [he] would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to,” the lawsuit reads. “Unfortunately, plaintiffs, reasonably believing that their friend and former band member would never steal credit for writing the original compositions, did not initially pursue any legal remedies.” Copyright lawsuits over years-old songs have become a common sight in the music industry over the past decade, thanks largely to a Supreme Court ruling that said such cases were mostly fair game. But the plaintiffs in the current case – which is styled as an infringement lawsuit but appears to really be more of a dispute over ownership – could still face hurdles over their long delay. To understand why, go read our full story on the lawsuit, with access to the actual lawsuit filed against Nelly.
Other top stories this week…
NOT A TINY VERDICT – T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris won a stunning $71 million jury verdict in their lawsuit claiming that toymaker MGA stole the design of a line of “O.M.G.” toy dolls from their real-life teen pop group OMG Girlz. Following a three-week trial, a jury found that MGA infringed both the trade dress and the likeness rights of the OMG Girlz — a defunct trio created by Tiny featuring her daughter Zonnique “Star” Pullins. JACKSON ESTATE ACTION – Michael Jackson’s estate filed an arbitration case against a man who it claims has threatened to resurface ugly abuse allegations ahead of the upcoming release of Michael, a biopic about the King of Pop. According to the estate, the accuser signed a never-before-reported settlement in 2020 that saw him paid $3.3 million in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement, but now he’s threatening to breach the deal if he’s not paid another $213 million. DIDDY STAYS IN JAIL – Sean “Diddy” Combs was once again refused bail in his sex abuse case, after a federal judge ruled that the indicted rapper and music executive would pose a flight risk and might intimidate witnesses if released. His lawyers renewed their request to let him await trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges under house arrest at his Miami mansion, but Judge Andrew L. Carter ruled Diddy must instead wait for the trial in a Brooklyn federal prison. REASONABLE DOUBT? Raise your hand if you had “Jay-Z argues with New York City over arcane issues of intellectual property law” on your 2024 bingo card. With a court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Records looming, lawyers for the superstar and the city are somehow now wrangling over whether he can use copyright termination to retake control of his debut album Reasonable Doubt. That’s a crucial question for anyone who wants to buy Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella – and for a municipal government that’s trying to use the auction to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid child support. DOLAN CASE TOSSED – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Madison Square Garden executive James Dolan of pressuring a masseuse into unwanted sex while his band toured with the Eagles, ruling that his accuser had failed to meet the requirements of a federal sex trafficking law. But the case, which also includes simpler, state-law allegations of sexual battery and aiding and abetting of sexual assault, will likely be refiled in state court. SPICE SETTLEMENT – Ice Spice reached an agreement to end a copyright lawsuit over allegations that her recent hit “In Ha Mood” was copied from an earlier track called “In That Mood” by a Brooklyn rapper named D.Chamberz (Duval Chamberlain). Terms of the apparent settlement were not disclosed in court filings. MANILOW BATTLE – Hipgnosis Songs Fund, one of the most influential players in the catalog acquisition market run-up of recent years, is locked in litigation with Barry Manilow – a two-way, trans-Atlantic legal battle that sheds light on the company’s 2020 deal to buy the singer’s royalty income. Billboard’s Elizabeth Dilts Marshall dove deep into the court filings and breaks it all down here.
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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: Diddy faces a sweeping criminal indictment that accuses him of decades of sexual abuse; Miley Cyrus gets hit with a copyright lawsuit over allegations that her chart-topping “Flowers” infringed a Bruno Mars track; Eddy Grant wins his case against Donald Trump over the use of “Electric Avenue” in a campaign video; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Diddy’s Downfall
Less than a year after news broke about a civil lawsuit containing brutal accusations of sexual abuse against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the other shoe has finally dropped.
The once-powerful rapper was arrested in New York City on Monday night on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. When prosecutors unsealed the indictment on Tuesday, they detailed allegations of a sprawling criminal operation with a single aim: “fulfilling the personal desires of Combs, particularly those related to sexual gratification.”
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” the indictment reads. If convicted of the charges, Combs is facing a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars.
Later on Tuesday, Combs was arraigned in federal court and denied bail, leaving him in jail until an eventual trial. The judge said Diddy posed a flight risk and was potentially a danger to others, swayed by arguments from prosecutors that he was a “serial abuser” who had a history of both violence and witness intimidation.
In many ways, the charges against Diddy mirror those against R. Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 over a decades-long scheme to abuse underage women.
Like Kelly, prosecutors are targeting Combs under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a federal statute that bans criminal enterprises composed of multiple people. While RICO is best known as a tool to fight mobsters and drug cartels, the Kelly case proved that it can be equally effective at targeting a superstar musician who used his fame and money to build what amounts to a criminal organization – only one aimed at facilitating sexual abuse.
And like the Kelly case, the indictment of Combs has led to tough questions about why it took so long for law enforcement to act. When asked directly at Tuesday’s press conference, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams demurred: “I can’t tell you why it took so long. I think the better focus is on the fact that we are here today and we are committed to making sure that justice is done.”
For more on the case, go read our full story on Combs’ indictment, including access to the charging documents and statements from prosecutors, as well as our coverage on the bail hearing. And stay tuned as the case unfolds, because Billboard will be keeping you updated with every development.
THE OTHER BIG STORY: I Can Write My Own Songs?
Nearly two years after fans speculated that Miley Cyrus’ chart-topping “Flowers” was making pointed references to Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man,” a company that owns part of the Mars song is suing her for copyright infringement. The complaint was filed not by Mars himself but by an entity called Tempo Music Investments that bought a share of the copyright to his song from one of its co-writers. In it, lawyers for that group claim the two songs have “striking similarities.” Whether or not they’re “striking,” the songs have clear connections. In the time-honored tradition of an “answer song,” Cyrus inverted Mars’ lyrics and seemed to repeatedly rebut them – in one instance telling fans “I can buy myself flowers” when Mars said “I should’ve bought you flowers.” The reason for the references? Mars’ song was apparently a favorite of Cyrus’ ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, and the theory goes that her repeated allusions were a reference to their split. At the time, legal experts told Billboard that Cyrus was likely not violating copyrights simply by using similar lyrics to fire back at the earlier song. This week’s lawsuit says the similarities go well beyond the lyrics, including “melodic and harmonic material,” “pitch ending pattern,” and “bass-line structure.” But experts remain skeptical. To understand why, go read our full story, including comments from copyright lawyers and access to the full complaint filed against Cyrus.
Other top stories this week…
‘ELECTRIC’ INFRINGEMENT – A federal judge ruled that Donald Trump infringed copyrights by using Eddy Grant’s iconic “Electric Avenue” in a 2020 campaign video without permission. Trump claimed that he made legal fair use of the song by using it in a video attacking Joe Biden, but the judge called it something else: “wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad.” Up next: A ruling on how much Grant is owed in damages. MORE DIDDY -Tuesday’s indictment overshadowed everything else, but it wasn’t the only Diddy Law story from the past week. The rapper was hit with a new civil lawsuit from Dawn Richard, a winner of MTV’s Making the Band who says he subjected her to years of “abuse and exploitation.” He also moved to set aside a $100 million default judgment won by a Michigan inmate, arguing he was never served with the “frivolous” sexual assault allegations and would have easily defeated them if he had been. DOLAN DEPOSITION – A federal judge ruled that Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan must sit for a deposition over the infamous 2017 ejection of ex-NBA player Charles Oakley from the Manhattan arena, ruling that the CEO “had a courtside seat” for the incident. Defense lawyers argued that Dolan, who also controls the Las Vegas Sphere and Radio City Music Hall, shouldn’t be personally dragged into a deposition, but a judge said the exec “likely possesses relevant knowledge that cannot be obtained from other witnesses.”RATE DEBATE – BMI filed a rate-setting case against SiriusXM in federal court after they failed to reach a deal during more than two years of negotiations, arguing the radio company is “no longer a startup” and must pay more to songwriters. Among other things, BMI pointed to SiriusXM’s increasing reliance on internet streaming rather than old-school satellite radio. “Digital music services pay higher rates to BMI than satellite radio, and the new SiriusXM rate should reflect this expansion of digital performances.”TAYLOR ENDORSEMENT – When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president, the singer said she was spurred to action by her fears about artificial intelligence — namely, an incident last month in which Donald Trump posted AI-generated images that falsely claimed the superstar’s support. Experts told Billboard at the time that Swift could have sued Trump, but they predicted (accurately, it turns out) that the star would probably just fight Trump’s fakery with a legitimate endorsement of her own.PHARMA FIGHT – Johnson & Johnson was hit with a copyright lawsuit accusing the pharma giant of “rampant infringement” of instrumental music in YouTube and Facebook videos. Associated Production Music (APM) – a joint venture of Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing — claimed J&J released nearly 80 different internet videos featuring unlicensed music from its catalog.
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: Prosecutors file a first-of-its-kind criminal case against an alleged streaming fraudster who made $10 million with fake songs; the White Stripes file a copyright case against Donald Trump over use of their music; Spotify wins a strongly-worded ruling dismissing a long-running lawsuit filed by Eminem’s publisher; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Streaming Fraud Finally Goes To Court
When Manhattan federal prosecutors indicted a North Carolina musician named Michael Smith last week, accusing him of stealing $10 million in streaming royalties as part of a “brazen fraud scheme,” they told a story that much of the music industry already knew. Streaming fraud – artificially boosting traffic for certain songs – has been a growing problem for years. One study found that 1% to 3% of plays in France in 2021 were fraudulent; a 2022 report by fraud-detection service Beatdapp estimated that more than 10% of global streams were fake. And this isn’t the scam from “Office Space,” stealing fractions of a penny from a faceless tech giant. Because royalties are calculated as a percentage of a finite pie, every phony stream represents real money being diverted away from music that consumers actually played and the artists who created it. In the first-of-its-kind indictment, the feds say Smith created thousands of fake songs, then used an army of bots to play them billions of times on Spotify and other streamers. At one point, Smith estimated that he could play his songs 661,440 times each day, raking in as much as $1.2 million per year. Prosecutors say Smith’s plot was aided by artificial intelligence – another growing problem for the industry. When he couldn’t create enough fake tracks to make the scam work, Smith allegedly partnered with an unnamed executive at an A.I. music company to produce grist for his mill, funneling money back in the form of percentage cuts. For more details go read Kristin Robinson’s stories – on the filing of the charges, and on an AI company with strong ties to the accused fraudster.
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Other top stories this week…
“SUES FASCISTS” – The White Stripes filed a copyright lawsuit against Donald Trump for using their iconic “Seven Nation Army” in a social media post, arguing that any association with the president was “offensive” because they “vehemently oppose” his policies and his bid for another term in the White House. In announcing the case, Jack White included a screenshot of the complaint with the caption “this machine sues fascists” – an allusion to Woody Guthrie’s famous use of a sticker reading “this machine kills fascists” on his guitar during World War II. The White Stripes are the latest in a long list of musical artists to threaten or take legal action against Trump over his use of music. LOSE YOUR CASE – Spotify defeated a long-running lawsuit filed by Eminem’s publisher, Eight Mile Style, that claimed the rapper’s music had been streamed illegally “billions” of times on the platform. Rather than order Spotify to pay, the judge sharply criticized Eight Mile for suing in the first place, ruling that the company had effectively manufactured the lawsuit in an effort to win legal damages. “Eight Mile Style was not a hapless victim,” the judge wrote. DIDDY DAMAGES – A Michigan inmate named Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith won a $100 million default judgment against Sean “Diddy” Combs in a sexual assault lawsuit — an eye-popping figure that was handed down after the rapper did not show up in court or file any formal response to the case. Following the ruling, Combs’ lawyers strongly denied that the rapper was served with the lawsuit and said he “looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.” GUESS WHO TRUCE – The members of classic rock band The Guess Who settled a bitter trademark lawsuit in which two bandmates (Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings) referred to a recent iteration of the group run by two others (Jim Kale and Garry Peterson) as nothing more than a “cover band.” COPYRIGHT CLAPBACK – Verizon fired back at a lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment over allegations of “staggering” piracy on its network. The labels claim Verizon “buried its head in the sand” and enabled illegal filesharing, but in a motion to dismiss, the telecom giant blasted the “legally deficient” premise of the case: “When people do bad things online, their internet service providers are not typically the ones to blame. This lawsuit claims otherwise.”
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: Allegations of corporate “sabotage” of Revlon’s Britney Spears partnership; the estate of Isaac Hayes wins an injunction against Donald Trump over music at rallies; a judge rules on Missy Elliot’s copyright battle; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: The Great Britney Fragrance Heist
Corporate espionage AND Britney Spears? We’re in. Two decades after the singer launched a lucrative perfume partnership with Revlon’s Elizabeth Arden, the company is now accusing several former employees and an upstart rival (Give Back Beauty) of effectively stealing the superstar. In a lawsuit filed last week, Revlon’s attorneys called it a “carefully planned and executed grab.” “Revlon and Elizabeth Arden were completely unaware that Revlon’s own team was actively sabotaging one of their most valuable licensing relationships,” the company’s lawyers claim. In technical terms, the lawsuit accuses the defendants of theft of trade secrets and so-called tortious interference with their business and contracts. It also accuses the individual employees of breach of their contracts and breach of their duty of loyalty to Revlon. Britney isn’t accused of any wrongdoing. Give Back Beauty strongly denied the allegations, telling Billboard that the allegations were “entirely without merit” and that it would “aggressively defend any attempt to impugn the integrity of our company. Revlon, for its part, mostly stressed that it wasn’t suing Spears herself: “We value our 20-year partnership and wish Britney all the best.” Revlon doesn’t feel the same way about the departing employees — labeling one as a “double-agent” who assisted a rival company in “taking the Britney Brands business away” while she was outwardly working to renew the account for Elizabeth Arden. For the rest of the lawsuit’s allegations, go read our full story here.
Other top stories this week…
TRUMP INJUNCTION – The estate of Isaac Hayes won a preliminary injunction prohibiting former President Donald Trump and his campaign from playing the singer’s “Hold On, I’m Coming” at rallies. Hayes is one of many artists to complain about the former president using their music in the 2024 campaign, but thus far he’s the only one to actually sue over it. MISSY FACES TRIAL – A federal judge ruled that Missy Elliott must face trial in a copyright lawsuit filed by a man named Terry Williams, who claims to have co-written several decades-old songs she released with the group Sistas. The judge did, however, dismiss one of the lawsuit’s key claims: That Terry and Elliott had co-written “Heartbroken,” a 1996 track released by the late Aaliyah. AUCTION DELAYED – A court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records was postponed for three weeks — and the minimum price for the sale was more than doubled to help cover Dash’s massive unpaid tax and child support debts. DEAL IN THE SKY – A lawsuit filed by Journey member Jonathan Cain against bandmate Neal Schon was largely resolved after Schon conceded to the appointment of a neutral third party to resolve the “deadlock” that Cain has claimed is crippling the band’s operations. The case, filed last month, was the latest in a string of legal battles among members of the “Don’t Stop Believin’” band. ROYALTIES ROW – Spotify fired back at a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective that claims the streamer used the addition of audiobooks to “unlawfully” cut its music royalty payments nearly in half. In a motion to dismiss the case, Spotify called it “nonsensical” and claims that it “profoundly devalues the contributions of the tens of thousands of book authors.” MANILOW v. HIPGNOSIS – Barry Manilow sued Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) in federal court, seeking $1.5 million in unpaid bonuses related to the music rights company’s acquisition of his catalog four years ago. The new case came a month after Hipgnosis sued Manilow in the UK alleging breach of contract relating to the bonus payments.MANSON APPEAL – Marilyn Manson launched an appeal seeking to revive his defamation lawsuit against ex-fiance Evan Rachel Wood, arguing a lower judge who dismissed much of the case ignored key evidence. The case, which claims that Wood “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured” women to make false abuse allegations against Manson, was largely dismissed last year under California’s anti-SLAPP statute. DMCA DISMISSED – A federal judge ruled that Universal Music Group and Playboi Carti didn’t abuse the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) when they issued a takedown notice — erroneously, it later turned out — against another rapper’s song that used the same beat. The judge ruled that the law’s safeguards against false takedowns only prohibit intentionally false use of the system.
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: Shaboozey gets into a thorny legal battle with his former label; Beyoncé and the Foo Fighters move to stop Donald Trump from using their songs; another lawsuit erupts over the control of the Ramones; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Shaboozey’s Looming “Bar” Fight
Amid the massive success of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” an acrimonious legal battle is brewing in Los Angeles Superior Court. On Wednesday (Aug. 21), the breakout country star (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) filed a lawsuit against music publisher Warner Chappell and his former record label, Kreshendo Entertainment, accusing them of breach of contract. Two days later, Kreshendo sued him right back, accusing him of “a strategy of fraud and misrepresentation.” The dispute? The extent to which Shaboozey is still bound by a deal he signed with Kreshendo back in 2016, when he was a relatively unknown artist. Both sides agree that the deal was terminated in 2019, but they are at odds over Shaboozey’s continuing obligations to his old label. And Warner has gotten roped in because it administers his publishing rights, which play a key role in the dispute. The litigation is getting underway just as “A Bar Song” has emerged as one of the biggest hits of 2024. A genre-blending hit that interpolates J-KWON‘s 2004 rap hit “Tipsy” into a bouncy pop country track, the track has spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the longest chart-topping stint of the year. In its lawsuit, Kreshendo says it was that sudden success that sparked the legal battle: “Shaboozey had no issue with any of these terms for years. It was only after he recently released the ‘Bar Song,’ which has become a huge hit, that he has taken sudden issue with the terms he expressly agreed to.” We’ll keep you posted as the dispute moves ahead in court…
Other top stories this week…
FAMILY FUED – A California appeals court issued a final ruling allowing the Michael Jackson estate to proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer’s catalog to Sony Music, rejecting objections from his mother Katherine Jackson that aimed to block the deal. She’d argued that the deal “violated Michael’s wishes,” but the court ruled that the superstar’s will gives his executors (John Branca and John McClain) “broad powers” to ink such transactions. HOLD UP – Beyoncé‘s record label and music publisher sent a cease-and-desist to Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign over its use of the megastar’s song “Freedom” in a social media video, prompting the campaign to quickly pull down the offending post. The Bey track serves as the official theme song for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — likely the reason why the Trump campaign used it. ANTI-HERO? – Elsewhere in Trump world, the Foo Fighters publicly claimed that they had not authorized the former president to play their 1997 anthem “My Hero” at a rally with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and would seek to prevent him from doing so in the future. The campaign later claimed that it had, in fact, obtained proper licenses to perform the song. Either way, the band said that any royalties received as a result of this usage would be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign. DAME’S UNPAID TAXES – Just a week before a court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, there was a stunning new wrinkle: He owes more than $8.7 million in unpaid taxes — and New York state says the proceeds from the Roc-A-Fella sale must be used to pay them. The new claim complicated an already complex situation, in which Dash’s stake in the storied record label is being sold off by U.S. Marshals to pay off an $823,000 civil judgment. HEY, HO, LET’S SUE – Opening up a new front in the never-ending legal war over the Ramones, Joey Ramone’s brother (Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh) sued Johnny’s widow (Linda Cummings-Ramone), accusing her of infringing the band’s trademarks by carrying out an “unrelenting quest” to associate herself with the Ramones. DIDDY CASE UPDATE – Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge to dismiss a case filed in February by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, arguing that the “salacious” lawsuit was filled with “blatant falsehoods” designed to pressure him into paying a lucrative settlement: “Running to nearly 100 pages, it includes countless tall tales, shameless celebrity namedrops, and irrelevant images.” SNEAKER SETTLEMENT – The sneaker company Vans and a Brooklyn art collective called MSCHF reached a settlement to end a long-running trademark lawsuit over Tyga‘s “Wavy Baby” sneakers — a parody of the company’s classic Old Skool brand of shoes. The artists said Tyga’s pricy sneakers were akin to an art project, and thus protected by the First Amendment. But Vans called it “blatant” infringement of the company’s IP, and federal courts repeatedly agreed with that assessment. OUTKAST TRADEMARK CASE – The legendary rappers sued an EDM duo called ATLiens, the same name as one of OutKast’s best-known songs. Big Boi and André 3000 claimed that the name (a combo of “aliens” and their hometown of Atlanta) is a novel linguistic term that had been “invented by OutKast” — and that the rival group is confusing music fans by using it. SHKRELI SEIZURE – A federal judge ordered convicted pharma executive Martin Shkreli to hand over his copies of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, rejecting his claims that he had a right to retain duplicates of the one-of-a-kind album even after he forfeited it to federal prosecutors.
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