Legal news
Harry Styles Sues Over Fake Merch On the Internet, Says He Must Protect ‘Unknowing’ Fans
Harry Styles is on the legal offensive to combat fake merch on the internet. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court, the pop star sued a number of online sellers for allegedly violating his intellectual property rights by selling counterfeit merchandise to unsuspecting Harry fans. Arguing that the counterfeiters use misleading tactics to make it “difficult for consumers to distinguish such stores from an authorized retailer,” attorneys for Styles want a judge to issue a sweeping court order that would, among other things, force big web platforms like Amazon and Etsy (who are not named as defendants) to immediately shut down the listings. “Plaintiff is forced to file this action to combat defendants’ counterfeiting of its registered trademarks, as well as to protect unknowing c...
Marjorie Taylor Greene Locked Out of Twitter Because She Forgot About Dr. Dre(‘s Lawyers)
Marjorie Taylor Greene decided it was Fuck with Dre day and now everyone else is celebrating, as she tells TMZ she was locked out of her Twitter account for posting a video soundtracked by Dr. Dre’s music without permission. On Monday, January 9th, the part-time Congresswoman and full-time troll uploaded a long and repetitive video of her walking various places as the first chords of “Still D.R.E” played on a loop. “It’s time to begin,” she wrote, “and they can’t stop what’s coming.” But as it turns out, they can. Dr. Dre’s attorney Howard King sent MTJ a cease and desist letter, writing, “Mr. Young [Dre] has not, and will never, grant you permission to broadcast or disseminate any of his music,” and adding, “We’re writing because we think an actual lawmaker should be making...
Belarus Legalizes Piracy of Media From “Unfriendly” Nations
Belarus, which has faced sanctions from the United States for allying with Russia throughout the country’s invasion of Ukraine, has passed a law legalizing the piracy of media and intellectual property made in “unfriendly” nations. As Vice reports, the law legalizes the piracy of digital goods like computer software, movies, and music that were made by rights holders residing in “foreign states that commit unfriendly actions against Belarusian legal entities and (or) individuals.” It also allows for the import of physical goods without the consent of rights holders in order to avoid “a critical shortage in the domestic market of food and other products.” According to Vice, royalties from the use of sanctioned goods will be held by the patent authority, and if they aren’t collected by the r...
Cage the Elephant Singer Matt Shultz Arrested on Gun Charges
Cage the Elephant lead singer Matt Shultz was arrested in New York City on Thursday, January 5th and charged with felony gun possession, multiple outlets report. On Wednesday, January 4th, an employee at the Bowery Hotel where Shultz was staying allegedly saw him carry a handgun into a ground floor public bathroom. Police appeared at his hotel room on January 5th and Shultz admitted that he owned two .45 caliber guns, a Sig Sauer and a Smith & Wesson, though at the time he reportedly claimed to not remember if they were still in the hotel. Police took Shultz into custody and a judge issued a warrant which allowed law enforcement officials to search his hotel room. Both firearms were found to be loaded. Shultz did not have a license for the weapons. Advertisement Related Video Shul...
’90s Hip-Hop Duo Black Sheep Sues Universal Music Over an Alleged $750M in Unpaid Spotify Stock Royalties
A prominent ’90s hip-hop duo is suing Universal Music Group for withholding royalties tied to what they’re alleging is a “sweetheart” deal the label reached with Spotify in the late 2000s. Filed Wednesday (Jan. 4) in U.S. district court in New York by attorneys representing Andres Titus (Dres) and William McLean (Mista Lawnge), members of the hip-hop duo Black Sheep, the lawsuit claims UMG owes its artists approximately $750 million in royalties deriving from the company’s stock in Spotify. Under a licensing deal they claim UMG and the streaming giant reached in 2008, the label agreed to receive lower royalty payments in exchange for equity in the then-nascent streaming company. But Titus and McLean say the label breached their contract with Black Sheep and other artists by withholding wha...
Judge Dismisses Ashley Morgan Smithline’s Case Against Marilyn Manson
A California district judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by model Ashley Morgan Smithline against Marilyn Manson, which accused the musician born Brian Warner of sexual assault, human trafficking, and unlawful imprisonment. After Smithline’s attorney Jay Ellwanger withdrew his representation in October, Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha gave Smithline a 90-day window to either hire a new attorney or decide to represent herself. She did neither by the December 5th deadline, prompting Aenlle-Rocha to dismiss the case without prejudice late Tuesday. “We thank and commend Ashley Smithline for dismissing her claims against Brian Warner without seeking or receiving anything in return,” Manson’s attorney Howard King wrote in a statement. “Ms. Smithline has refused to be manipulated by others who ar...
Final Chapters of ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Claim Singer Forced Aaliyah’s Family to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement Following Annulment
The final two installments of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries series ended with a pair of bombshell revelations about the imprisoned singer’s controversial marriage to a then-underage Aaliyah. The two episodes that debuted on Monday and Tuesday, focused in on Kelly’s 2022 federal trial, which included allegations that the singer and his team allegedly forced Aaliyah’s family to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the wake of the annulment of the performers’ brief marriage. Kelly and Aaliyah were married in secret in August 1994 when the “Rock the Boat” singer was just 15, even though their marriage certificate listed her age as 18; the marriage was reportedly annulled by Aaliyah’s parents in Feb. 1995. Interviews with some of Kelly’s and Aaliyah’s entourages revealed some of the de...
Stars of 1968 Romeo and Juliet Sue for Child Abuse over Nudity
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who as teenagers brought Shakespeare to life in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, are suing Paramount for child abuse over the movie’s nudity. As Variety reports, they are seeking damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.” Whiting was 16 when he appeared in the movie, and Hussey began at 15 but turned 16 during production. For the famous, “It was the nightingale, and not the lark,” scene, Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, filmed Whiting’s butt and Hussey’s bare breasts. Now in their 70s, the actors allege that they had been assured there would be no nudity, only to be pressured the day of the shoot to expose themselves “or the Picture would fail.” “What they were told and what went on were two different things,”...
Barbados May Seek Reparations from Benedict Cumberbatch’s Family for Slavery
Barbados has begun seeking reparations from the descendants of slave owners, as The Daily Beast reports, and that may soon include the family of Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch’s seventh great-grandfather bought the island’s Cleland plantation in 1728 and passed down ownership until 1834, when slavery was abolished in Barbados. That plantation reportedly exploited 250 enslaved people and became the foundation of the Cumberbatch family fortune, a fact that the actor hasn’t shied away from. In a 2007 interview, according to the New York Times, Cumberbatch revealed that his mother urged him to pursue his career under an alias specifically to avoid paying reparations. He has also said that he took his role in 12 Years a Slave because h...
Another Woman Files Sex Abuse Lawsuit Against Bill Cosby, NBC
A woman who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1986 sued the comedian-actor, NBCUniversal and other companies Friday (Dec. 30) in New York, where five other women filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month. Stacey Pinkerton says she was a 21-year-old flight attendant and model that year when she claims Cosby drugged her at a restaurant in Illinois and took her back to a hotel room in Chicago. The lawsuit alleges Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with her while she was incapacitated from the drugs. The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she...
Steven Tyler Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Minor in New Lawsuit
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has been accused of sexual assaulting a minor in a new lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, Julia Holcomb. Tyler, then 27, began dating Holcomb shortly after her 16th birthday in 1975. Holcomb’s mother signed over her guardianship to Tyler, and the two moved in together at Tyler’s Boston home. She soon became pregnant, but then their relationship went south. Their apartment caught on fire, and she ended up in a hospital, during which time Tyler allegedly forced her to have an abortion. “When I returned home to my mother, I was a broken spirit,” Holcomb recounted in a 2011 essay. “I could not sleep at night without nightmares of the abortion and the fire. The world seemed like a dark place.” For his part, Tyler contends that the couple jointly decided to abo...
Judge Upholds Cardi B’s Win in Back Tattoo “Misappropriation” Trial
A California judge has upheld Cardi B’s win at a recent trial where jurors found her not liable for using a portion of plaintiff Kevin Brophy’s back tattoo on the cover of her 2016 mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1, Rolling Stone reports. Brophy, a model, sued Cardi for $5 million in 2017, claiming the cover of the mixtape — which depicts a man apparently performing oral sex on the rapper — misappropriated his likeness by using an image of his tattoo, and that he was suffering “distress and humiliation” because of it. Brophy asked the court to toss their October 21st, 2022 verdict, which found Cardi not liable. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled Wednesday that Brophy’s request to toss that ruling had come too late and lacked merit, and subsequently ordered him to pay Cardi’s legal...
