Shake It Off lyrical legal battle settled
One of the big ongoing song theft legal battles has been settled. A deal has been reached between Taylor Swift and songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler over the lyrical references to playas playing and haters hating in her 2014 hit 'Shake It Off'.

Hall and Butler accused Swift of ripping off their 2001 song 'Playas Gon Play' when she wrote 'Shake It Off'. The earlier song included the line "the playas gon play/them haters gonna hate", while Swift's hit famously featured the lyric "the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate".

Throughout, Swift's legal team argued that the notion of players playing and haters hating is far too generic for lyrics based on said notion to be protected by copyright in isolation. Initially the judge overseeing the case, Michael W Fitzgerald, agreed with that viewpoint and dismissed Hall and Butler's lawsuit as a result. But that decision was then overturned on appeal.

Swift's lawyers then tried very hard indeed to have the case dismissed for a second time, possibly sensing that Fitzgerald was still of the opinion that Hall and Butler's legal claim was pretty weak. But the judge seemed to conclude that the Swift side's specific arguments hadn't really changed, so it would be inappropriate to dismiss for a second time when the higher court had reversed the initial dismissal.

This meant that the whole dispute was due to head to trial early next year. More recently Swift herself insisted that she couldn't possibly have heard 'Playas Gon Play' before writing 'Shake It Off', because she never watched MTV and was mainly into country music when the former was released.

Her lawyers then tried presenting the sneaky argument that Hall and Butler didn't even have the right to sue over the alleged lyric theft, because that right had been assigned to their respective publishers via their publishing deals. And the publishers in control of 'Playas Gon Play' are also the publishers of 'Shake It Off', so they were clearly not going to take on the legal battle on behalf of the writers.

All of those claims would have got more scrutiny had the case got properly to trial. But, alas, that isn't going to happen. Which is no fun at all.

Yesterday legal reps for both sides told the court that they now supported an order "dismissing this action, in its entirety, with prejudice and with plaintiffs, on the one hand, and defendants, on the other hand, to bear their respective attorneys' fees and costs".

And Fitzgerald then issued an order stating: "Pursuant to the parties' stipulation, this action is hereby dismissed, in its entirety and with prejudice, plaintiffs and defendants to bear their respective attorney's fees and cost".

Needless to say, we don't currently have any information about what deal has been done, nor whether Hall and Butler will receive damages, or songwriting credits on and future royalties from 'Shake It Off'.

Generally speaking the courts in the US and UK have been narrowing the scope of song-theft legal claims in recent years, seeming very nervous to grant copyright protection to short commonplace musical segments, and generally setting the bar pretty high when it comes to proving that the creators of a new song had access to an older song.

That said, it would have been interesting to get full court scrutiny on this case, centred as it was on lyrics rather than a musical composition.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

DaBaby accused of song-theft on 2020 hit Rockstar
While the big legal battle over Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' may have been settled, at least we have another song-theft lawsuit to add to the pile in its place. DaBaby has been accused of ripping off an earlier song on his 2020 Roddy Ricch guesting hit 'Rockstar'.

According to Rolling Stone, Florida-based producer Craig Mims - who performs as JuJu Beats - claims that 'Rockstar' is a rip off of his track 'Selena'.

DaBaby and his collaborators had a copy of the earlier track, Mims' lawsuit states, because he had been in touch with the rapper's representatives - as well as Caroline Diaz at his label, Universal Music's Interscope - back in 2019.

"Plaintiff provided his musical composition known as 'Selena' to defendants in 2019", the lawsuit says, "who then used 'Selena' to create a sound recording entitled 'Rockstar'. Defendant Diaz and DaBaby's representative accessed plaintiff's 'Selena' on more than 40 occasions in late 2019 and early 2020".

Mims adds that he has sought to negotiate a settlement regarding his song-theft claim with DaBaby and his label numerous times, but without success. "Such efforts were unsuccessful due to defendants' unwillingness to cooperate or accept responsibility for blatant and wilful copyright infringement", the lawsuit goes on.

"It is unfortunate that these types of situations occur almost daily within the music industry", Mims' lawyer, Bradley Eiseman, told Rolling Stone earlier this week. "The unequal balance of power and money in the industry is sometimes used to silence the real individuals who truly deserve a piece of the action and money".

"It is too easy for the labels and mainstream artists and producers to cut out the ones who really matter the most", he added. "It is disheartening because there is enough money in the industry to change everyone's lives but the money usually ends up in the hands of the few".

We await DaBaby's response.

--------------------------------------------------

Yout says appeal of stream-ripping ruling in the public interest, wants RIAA legal costs claim paused
Stream-ripping platform Yout has asked a US court to pause a damages claim from the Recording Industry Association Of America so that it can get about appealing the recent ruling regarding whether or not its service contravenes American copyright law.

Yout sued the RIAA after the trade body tried to get its website removed from Google search on copyright grounds, hoping that a US court would confirm that its service is compliant with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The record companies argued that when Yout allows users to grab permanent downloads of YouTube streams it circumvents technical protection measures put in place by the Google video platform, and American copyright law forbids any such circumvention.

But Yout countered that YouTube doesn't have any real technical protection measures, pointing out that if you know what you're doing you can grab a download of a YouTube stream via a web browser. However, the court overseeing the dispute ultimately concluded that the manual process of grabbing a download of a stream was pretty onerous, and that in itself constitutes a technical protection measure which Yout is circumventing.

Having got Yout's lawsuit dismissed, the RIAA recently returned to court seeking an order forcing the stream ripper to pay $250,000 towards the costs it incurred from this legal battle. Yout should be forced to contribute towards the RIAA's legal costs, the trade body argued, because its legal claims were always implausible and its lawsuit therefore unreasonable.

Meanwhile, Yout plans to appeal the court's decision regarding the legal status of its service, taking the matter to the US Second Circuit Appeals Court. And it would like the lower court to stay the RIAA's legal costs claim while that appeal is in motion.

It presents various arguments for why the legal costs claim should be paused, including that it's in the public interest for the Second Circuit to review this case, and being forced to hand over $250,000 to the RIAA right now will impact on Yout's ability to continue with the appeal.

In a court filing earlier this month - now published by Torrentfreak - Yout said that its appeal in relation to "a novel question in copyright law serves the public interest", and therefore should not be hindered.

"More specifically", Yout's filing went on, "many content creators use plaintiff Yout's services to record their own original videos and they further encourage their audience and fans to use plaintiff Yout to record and play back their original content".

"Given the substantial reputational and monetary harm [from this legal battle]", it added, "plaintiff Yout will be unable to continue to provide the Yout service that allows content creators the ability to record and create original content if it is not allowed to appeal the court's holding".

It then also noted the possible wider impact of the recent ruling in its RIAA dispute, given that Yout is "based on a modified version of the open-source project youtube-dll", which is utilised by lots of other people and companies too.

"It is in the public interest that the appellate court determines if services such as Yout, and others that are also based upon the open-source software project youtube-dll (whether commercially exploited or coded and deployed by individual users) constitute circumvention pursuant to the DMCA as held by this court".

"The legality of software based on youtube-dll has not been fully litigated and reviewed by any appellate court on the merits thus far", it noted. "Given that the reach of this court's holding in this matter goes far beyond just this one small business software provider, it is in the public interest that the Second Circuit reviews the merits on appeal".

"This important and necessary review will be crippled if the instant matter concerning attorneys' fees is not stayed", it then claimed. "This factor weighs strongly in favour of granting a stay and as such, plaintiff respectfully requests that the court grant plaintiff Yout's motion to stay this matter, specifically with respect to attorneys' fees and costs pending appeal".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Universal Music confirms new President for its Australian business
Universal Music has appointed a new President for its business in Australia and New Zealand following the news yesterday that the incumbent boss for the region, George Ash, is standing down.

The new President for UMG Australia and New Zealand, taking over on 1 Jan, is Sean Warner, who has had various roles at the major since joining as a National Sales Manager in 2007, most recently SVP of Commercial.

In a statement announcing the promotion, Universal said its incoming President had "led the company's commercial business over the past fifteen years, from physical sales to the streaming era, in addition to overseeing the commercial strategy in Southeast Asia, launching Bravado's merchandise and licensing operations in the Australia and New Zealand region, and developing UMA's e-commerce business".

Prior to beginning his long stint at Universal, Warner worked in various other roles across the media and entertainment sectors in Australia, including at TV business Foxtel, and the gaming companies of BMG and Sony. Although, alas, never a Warner entertainment company.

Confirming his new job, Warner says: "It is an honour and a privilege to take on this role as President of Universal Music Australia and New Zealand. As the region's leading music company, we will continue to innovate and evolve our businesses, and support our artists and labels as they deliver the very best music and culture to fans".

Overall Universal boss man Lucian Grainge adds: "Sean's deep understanding of the Australian market combined with his operational experience and the respect he has earned from his UMG colleagues and artists - both domestic and international - makes him the ideal executive to take on the role of President. I'm confident he will expand our track record of creative and commercial success in a market that so culturally important".

An earlier statement from Universal said that Ash's departure from the major was "a long-planned personal decision to focus on new goals and projects, whilst leaving the company under the leadership of a new generation of executives, who will continue to build on the legacy of creative and commercial success that has flourished during his tenure".

Ash himself said of his exit: "Having been with the company for nearly three decades, the time feels right. I am so confident in, and proud of, the brilliant leadership team we have in place, as well as the positive changes we have made in the past couple of years, and I am excited to see the company, staff, labels, and artists continue to grow and thrive in the years ahead".

When the Australian division of Sony Music imploded last year following the sudden departure of long-serving CEO Denis Handlin and wide-ranging reports about the toxic corporate culture he had overseen, some criticisms were also made about working practices at UMG Australia as well.

At the time Ash said he was "heartbroken" about the allegations of bad practice, telling the Sydney Morning Herald: "My initial response was 'I don't know whether the allegations are true or not', but it made me think we haven't done enough and we need to do more in our company. I need to step up and take responsibility".

An independent investigation into the allegations was instigated, with Ash telling staff in a memo: "As the leader of this company I take full responsibility for creating a respectful workplace culture for everyone".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Ticketmaster could be fined over this weekend's Bad Bunny ticketing problems
The head of the Mexican government's consumer rights agency has criticised Ticketmaster over the issues that occurred at this weekend's Bad Bunny concerts in Mexico City, pledging to fine the Live Nation ticketing firm.

Ticketmaster admitted this weekend that there were issues at the big Bad Bunny shows resulting in some people with legit tickets being turned away from the venue. In a statement, the ticketing company said that the problems were caused by a particularly high number of fake tickets being presented at the entrances to Mexico City's Azteca Stadium.

"The presentation of an unprecedented number of fake tickets", its statement said, overwhelmed the venue's systems. "This generated confusion and complicated entrance to the stadium, with the unfortunate consequence of some legitimate tickets being denied entrance".

Ticketmaster has already pledged full refunds for those refused entry, but Ricardo Sheffield, head of Mexico's Federal Consumer Attorney's Office, insisted in an interview with the Televisa network that affected Bad Bunny fans must also receive compensation of 20% of their ticket purchase price.

Seemingly of the opinion that the problems were the result of Ticketmaster overselling the Bad Bunny shows - rather than a high number of counterfeit tickets being in circulation - Sheffield also pledged to fine the ticketing business. He added that any fine could equal 10% of the company's total sales in Mexico in 2021.

It remains to be seen how Ticketmaster responds to Sheffield's demands and allegations.

Back in the US - where Ticketmaster is still being criticised for the issues that surrounded the recent pre-sale of tickets to Taylor Swift's 2023 tour - another batch of tickets for said tour are about to go on sale. This time tickets will seemingly become available in a staggered fashion on a city by city basis.

As before, they will only be available to those who previously signed up via Ticketmaster's Verified Fan scheme. Those eligible for the next round of sales were told by Ticketmaster: "We apologise for the difficulties you may have experienced [last time], and have been asked by Taylor's team to create this additional opportunity for you to purchase tickets".

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

DEALS

Sony Music Publishing has signed singer, songwriter and producer Naomi Kimpenu to a worldwide publishing agreement. "Naomi is an exceptional talent with a very bright future ahead of her", says co-MD Tim Major. "She is a real force and we feel so lucky to be given the opportunity to support and cherish such an amazing person in the next phase of her career".

---------------------------------------------

APPOINTMENTS

BMG has appointed Pierrot Raschdorff as Senior Director of Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. He joins from Penguin Random House. "I couldn't be more excited about joining BMG", he says. "Music has the universal and emotional ability to connect people, even more, it forms communities and fosters faith in one's diversity. I am convinced that BMG is the right place for me to work on the mission for greater diversity every day".

Universal Music in the US has hired Alvaro Galbete-Velilla - formerly of SoundCloud - as SVP New Business, and promoted Kristen Bender to SVP Digital Innovation Strategy & Business Development. Both will be tasked with pushing partnerships and innovation in Web3 and the metaverse while that's still a thing anyone's interested in.

---------------------------------------------

RELEASES

Adam Lambert has announced that he will release new covers album 'High Drama' on 24 Feb. From it, this is his version of Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World'. Other artists whose hits are tackled on the album include Bonnie Tyler, Sia and Kings Of Leon.

Little Simz has released new album 'No Thank You', the existence of which she announced last week.

Yendry has released new single 'Ki-Ki', featuring Enny.

Wargasm have released the video for their song 'Super Fiend'. They've also been announced as the support act for Limp Bizkit on their European tour next year. The duo will release their debut album in 2023.

---------------------------------------------

GIGS & TOURS

Kiss have announced the UK leg of their farewell tour, which will take place next summer, including a show at the O2 in London on 5 Jul. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.

Orbital have announced UK and Ireland tour dates in March and April next year. Their new album, 'Optical Delusion', is out on 17 Feb.

Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN

Judge refuses to dismiss 50 Cent penis enlargement lawsuit
If you were hoping that we could all stop talking about 50 Cent's penis before Christmas, it looks like you're going to be disappointed. A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit in which the rapper accuses a medical practitioner of falsely implying that her company performed enlargement surgery on his, well… you know.

The rapper - real name Curtis Jackson - sued Angela Kogan in September. He claimed that he assumed Kogan was just a fan who wanted a souvenir when he agreed to be photographed with her back in 2020. Therefore he was shocked when the picture was used on the social media of Kogan's company, which trades as Perfection Plastic Surgery and MedSpa.

By using the photo in that way, Jackson claimed, Kogan was implying that he both used and endorsed her company's services. Worse still, the photo was also used in an article on gossip site The Shade Room in which Kogan discussed the rise in plastic surgery for men, including penile enhancements.

The use of the photo alongside that interview - which Jackson argued was basically advertorial - again implied that he had used and endorsed Kogan's company, and also possibly suggested he'd had surgery on his penis.

Kogan responded in October that Jackson's claim to have simply been posing with a random fan when the offending photo was taken was erroneous, given that they were photographed together in her office when he and his girlfriend attended to receive free spa treatments.

The photo was taken with some kind of quid pro quo over the free treatments in mind, Kogan said. She added that her social media post never made any claim to have performed any sort of procedure on the rapper, but just thanked him for visiting her office.

She also denied that the image had been used elsewhere to imply that he had undergone any sort of surgery, but added that "even if the court were to determine that plaintiff's name and image were used to directly promote a product or service, such use was made with the prior consent of plaintiff".

Despite this, the judge overseeing the case - Robert N Scola Jr - this week ruled that Jackson's claim is strong enough for the case to proceed to the discovery stage.

The judge questioned whether the way in which the photo had been used was comparable compensation for any treatments given for free. He also noted that, in her response, Kogan had failed to mention a screen capture video of her scrolling through the Shade Room article, which constituted another use of the image.

"They weakly argue that Jackson consented to the photo's being uploaded on to Instagram while making no mention of Jackson's consent/non-consent as to the screen capture video and the promotional value it doubtlessly served", the judge wrote in his ruling.

"That omission is fatal", he went on. "Because the defendants took it upon themselves to post the video onto their Instagram accounts, Jackson can plausibly argue that the defendants unauthorisedly used his likeness to promote their business regardless of whether the defendants had any role in TSR's publication of either the tweet or the article".

"The promotional value that the defendants have received from repeatedly sharing Kogan's photo with Jackson is surely great", he continued. "Although the court has no reason to doubt the quality of the 'free medspa services' that the defendants provided Jackson, the record is not sufficiently established to substantiate the defendants' suggestion that their services equitably compensated Jackson".

This does not mean that Jackson has won the case, but it does mean that it is a step closer to going to trial, and suggests that the judge is leaning towards siding with the rapper if it does.

BACK TO THE TOP OF THE BULLETIN