Copyright
Mariah Carey Accused of Stealing ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ in $20M Lawsuit
Mariah Carey is being sued for $20 million by a Mississippi artist who claims the singer stole her perennial holiday blockbuster “All I Want for Christmas is You” from him and denied him his rightful profits from the song. In the complaint, which was filed on Friday (June 3) in Louisiana district court by attorneys Douglas Schmidt and Andrew Abrams, Vince Vance (née Andy Stone) says Carey and her “All I Want” co-writer Walter Afanasieff willfully infringed his copyright of the song and have been unjustly enriching themselves ever since. Afanasieff and Sony Music, which released “All I Want for Christmas is You” on Columbia Records, are named as co-defendants in the suit, along with Sony Corp. of America. Described as a “self-employed artist,” Vance says he co-wrote the song of the same nam...
Sevenn Files Copyright Claims Against Alok in Brazilian Court
Dance music producers Sean and Kevin Brauer are formally pursuing copyright claims for 19 songs they say they worked on for the Brazilian DJ Alok over five years, for which they say they were denied proper credit. In a filing in a São Paulo civil court last month, the Brauer brothers, who have performed as the dance duo Sevenn, say they want the court to initiate a technical review of the authorship of the releases, which include some of Alok’s better-known songs, including “Favela” featuring Ina Wroldson, Alok and his brother Bhaskar’s “Fuego,” and a remix of Mick Jagger’s “Gotta Get A Grip.” The songs were produced while the Brauers — who are Brazilian-American dual nationals — were living mostly in Brazil, but their Rio de Janeiro-based attorney Eduardo Senna says that the brothers coul...
The Ledger: How the Industry Went From Discussing Fairness to Accuracy – And Why it Matters
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, most music industry conferences played like long, geeky arguments between technology companies that said they represented the future of the business and labels and publishers that wanted that future to involve getting paid. At one memorable SXSW panel, independent artists and small label owners seethed over their inability to get YouTube to permanently remove their music from user-generated videos. At MIDEM in 2010, a year before Spotify launched in the U.S., Americans heard horror stories from European executives about the platform’s minuscule royalty rates for ad-suppor...
Songwriters May Get a 32% Increase In Mechanical Royalties for Downloads and Physical Products
The Copyright Royalty Board has reportedly been asked by major rights holders and publishers to increase mechanical royalties for physical products by 32%. This increase would raise the mechanical royalty rate from 9.1 cents to 12 cents per track for physical products (CDs, vinyl), downloads, ringtone, and music bundles, per Variety. The 9.1 cents rate was set back in 2008 at the beginning of the Phono IV process, which involves royalties for both physical and digital formats. Supporters of the motion to the CRB, who requested an increase to 15 cents, included major label members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). It would mark a major win for songwri...
Justin Bieber, Dan + Shay Accused of Stealing ‘10,000 Hours’ in New Lawsuit
Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay are facing a new copyright lawsuit that claims they copied large parts of their Grammy-winning country hit “10,000 Hours” from a decades-old song. In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, a company called Melomega accused the stars of stealing the “core portion” of their hit song from a little-known 1980 song called “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Defendants’ theft is impudently bold,” lawyers for the company wrote, also naming Warner Music Group as a defendant. “One need only listen to ‘First Time’ and the infringing ‘10,000 Hours’ to discern the unmistakable similarities between the songs.” Melomega said their claims against Bieber and Dan + Shay had been cor...
Post Malone Is Headed To Trial. But Will It Be In Front Of Jury?
Post Malone is definitely heading to trial over accusations that he failed to credit one of the co-writers of “Circles.” What’s less certain is whether that trial will feature a jury. With the case now hurtling toward a trial date next month, the two sides are still battling over whether it should be decided by a judge or jury. Malone says there’s “no basis” to put the case before 12 of his peers, but attorneys for accuser Tyler Armes say the star is trying “deprive plaintiff of his Constitutional right to a jury trial.” “It is no surprise that defendants have failed to cite a single case in in support,” lawyers for Armes wrote Monday. “This is clearly because such cases are typically tried before a jury.” Armes, a Canadian producer and songwriter best-known for his work in the band Down w...
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to Be Deposed in Eminem Copyright Infringement Suit
A federal judge says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek must sit for depositions in a copyright lawsuit over Eminem’s music, rejecting the streamer’s arguments that he’s not personally involved in “day-to-day” licensing operations or that he’s too busy to participate in the case. Spotify claimed that Ek had little information to offer about the lawsuit and that Eight Mile Style was trying to drag him into a deposition simply to “harass and annoy” him. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery S. Frensley ruled Thursday (March 31) that the executive would need to find the time. “Undoubtedly Mr. Ek has a full schedule [and] the Court credits Spotify’s assertion that he is very busy indeed,” Judge Frensley wrote. “Yet, the issue of proper licensing relationships with the artists whose work comprises the entirety ...
CryptoPunks community reacts to the ongoing copyright battle between v1 and v2
During its initial release, 10,000 CryptoPunks were sold and made it to the secondary market before users discovered a critical smart contract exploit that made it possible for Punks’ buyers to withdraw their Ether (ETH) post-purchase. As a result, creator Larva Labs withdrew recognition of the v1 collection, fixed the exploit and released the v2 Punks collection we have now. Though, they’ve also sent mixed messages about the collection by selling off dozens of their own V1 Punks. The battle over the copyright of the CryptoPunks v1 collection is heating up as the images recently gained in market value, with Larva Labs filing a DMCA take-down notice to OpenSea and members of the v1 community striking back with their own. To complicate the matter, Larva Labs purposefully coded th...
For Lil Wayne, Mac Miller & More, Bringing Mixtapes to Streaming Is a Boon — But Clearing Them Is ‘Hell’
In the last few years, many cult-favorite hip-hop mixtapes from the 1990s and 2000s have made their way to streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify. Fan demand helped, but the hard work was done by sample clearance experts like Deborah Mannis-Gardner, who negotiated with copyright owners and labels whose songs and recordings were sampled on the tapes, to secure the necessary licenses. In 2021 alone, streaming services started offering Mac Miller’s critically acclaimed 2014 mixtape Faces, A$AP Rocky’s 2011 debut Live. Love. A$AP; Megan Thee Stallion’s compilation project Something For Thee Hotties which includes a handful of her standalone freestyles from the last few years, and Nicki Minaj’s breakout 2009 project, Beam Me Up Scotty. “This all started during COVID last ...
Taylor Swift’s Accusers Say She Must Face ‘Shake It Off’ Trial, Even If She’s ‘Unhappy’
A pair of songwriters who say Taylor Swift stole the lyrics to “Shake It Off” have fired back at the superstar’s renewed efforts to escape the case, saying she’s not entitled to “rehash” old arguments simply because she’s “unhappy” that a judge sent the case to trial. Explore See latest videos, charts and news After a federal judge ruled in December that Swift would have to stand trial over claims that she lifted lyrics from the 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play,” her attorneys quickly asked the judge to reconsider his own decision – a rare step that judges take only if they’ve clearly gotten something wrong. Swift’s attorneys say the ruling was “unprecedented” and potentially harmful to other artists, but in a response filed Friday (Jan. 14), attorneys for “Playas” songwriters Sean Hall and Nat...
Four Tet Gets Green Light From U.K. Judge to Proceed With Lawsuit Against Domino
Domino Recordings probably didn’t expect such a domino effect. Pat Treacy, Deputy Judge at the U.K. Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, has reportedly ruled that Four Tet‘s breach of contract suit against Domino will be able to proceed. The full trial is set to take place towards the beginning of 2022. Earlier this summer Four Tet sued Domino for a breach of contract, alleging the label had not paid out their agreed-upon streaming royalty rate of 50%. The label fired back and pointed to a separate clause in their contract, which was signed in 2001, that states they’re only obliged to pay 75% of their standard 18%: “In respect of records sold in new technology formats other than vinyl, Compact Discs and analogue tape cassettes the royalty rate...
Austria Poised to Loosen Online Copyright Restrictions — Will Other EU Countries Follow?
BERLIN — A spectre is haunting the European music business: The 2019 European Union Copyright Directive, intended to give creators and rightsholders more power to control the use of their content on online platforms, could instead create another set of problems. One of the pillars of the Copyright Directive was a provision that would hold online platforms responsible for unlicensed copyrighted material uploaded by users. In May, however, Germany passed a law implementing the directive with an exception that classified clips of under 15 seconds shared on online platforms like YouTube as “minor use,” presumptively allowing the use of the material without a license unless copyright holders specifically objected. Although the German law is contrary to both the text and the intention of t...
