Legal Troubles In Music

Legal Troubles In Music

The importance to dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘T’s cannot be stressed harder in the music industry. Also the importance of making sure the music that is being produced is copy protected and has license clearance for samples used.

Sir-Mix-A-Lot vs. David Ford for ‘Baby Got Back Royalties

David Ford is a DJ who claimed to have contributed to the beat production of the 1992 hit single, “Baby Got Back”, he also created the scratch effects on the song. Not until the Nicki Minaj 2014 release of “Anaconda” is when Ford filed suit for royalties in March of 2015 against Anthony Ray (Sir-Mix-A-Lot). According to an article cited on iHeartRadio, Ford didn’t realized that he wasn’t listed apart of the publishing and Sir-Mix-A-Lot was the sole owner of copyrights. In September of 2015, Sir-Mix-A-Lot won the law suite. Since original release of Baby Got Back the song has won a Grammy and featured in numerous television shows, commercial and films.

Nothing in this business should be left to trust. If David ford was indeed the contributing party of the beat of ‘Baby Got Back’, then he should have been included in the copyrights. It was his responsibility to make sure he was apart of the ownership of the song. What is not understandable is why Ford waited, twenty-two years to say anything or investigate the copyrights. The song went through so much other licensing before ‘Anaconda’, something should have been done on the first transaction.

Blurred Lines ‘Clearly’ Paid 7.4 Million to Marvin Gaye’s Estate

After a jury awarded the estate of Marvin Gay 7.4 Million for the use of Gaye’s recording “Got To Give Up” in the recording of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred lines”, writers of web magazine Plagiarism Today says this maybe be the fall of creativity in the industry. A good number of hit R&B songs have used some sort of sample from an older song. The predictions of some would have the world think that the entire genre of R&B will fall if cases such as Blurred Lines make it tough for new artist to sample.

It’s not tough to sample, copyright laws just insure that the rightful owner is credited and paid for their samples. The problem with the ‘Blurred Lines’ case is not that Robin Thicke sampled ‘Got To Give It Up’, it’s that he tried to ‘sneak-and-sample’ and not pay what was due to Marvin Gaye. This case will not be the fall of R&B as long as artists pay their dues like Nicki Minaj did with ‘Anaconda’.

Empire Vs. Empire

According to The Hollywood Reporter Fox made a preemptive suit against Empire Distribution, a California based recording/distribution label, to insure the continued use of the TV series show title “Empire”, that’s produced by Lee Daniels. Fox was responding to demands made by Empire Distribution to pay $5 Million and cast some of its artist in the series. Experts at Hollywood Reporter suggest that a preemptive suit is a risk because of the outcome of the “Blurred Lines” suit. The California recording label is claiming the show is dilutes and tarnishes the trademark by featuring "a label run by a homophobic drug dealer prone to murdering his friends." Fox claims that there is no previous trademark registration for ‘Empire’, only ‘Empire Distribution’ and ‘Empire Recordings’ and there is no confusion.

It’s interesting that Empire Distribution realized that Fox’s Empire is worth more to them Alive than Dead. Instead of sending them a suite to seize the use of the title, they sent a demand letter for money and more importantly, casting of their artist, which will turn into an ongoing income for the distribution company. However, without registration of “Empire”, the distribution company has no rights to the title in its market. The term Empire is a general term that cannot be trademarked. Empire Distribution is not a famous mark such as Universal of Universal Studios and Universal Music Group. Inside the show there is never a reference of Empire Records or Empire Distribution, the title ‘Empire’ is to infer the power of the company in the series and to pay homage to the location of New York the Empire State.