2 Live Crew Ruling, AI Settlements, ‘Power Ballad’ Movie & More Top Music Law News
In this week's Legal Beat, 2 Live Crew loses a battle, UMG and Warner get sued over their AI deals, 'Power Ballad' riffs on music lawsuits and much more.
Black News 
Copyright termination, a crucial legal provision that allows songwriters and artists to take back their music decades after they sold it away, was meant to be inalienable. You cannot waive it, you cannot sell it: The whole point was for it to be available years later, when an artist would get a “second bite at the apple” after it was clear how much their music was really worth.
But termination is not automatic, as many artists have learned the hard way. You can’t take your music back if a judge says you recorded it as a work for hire (and the labels say almost every album was). You can’t get it back if you used a loan-out company, a common tax structure for musicians. You also can’t get them back if you gave them away in a divorce settlement.
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Now we can add bankruptcy to the list. In a first-of-its-kind decision last week, a federal appeals court overturned a victory for legendary hip-hop group 2 Live Crew and ruled that it could not invoke termination to win back five of its albums because one of its members had filed for bankruptcy years earlier. Why did that matter? Go read the full story to find out.
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Other top stories this week…
-The American Federation of Musicians filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group over their settlements with AI music companies Suno and Udio, claiming its members have not gotten paid or given enough information about the deals.
-Director John Carney sat down with Billboard to talk about Power Ballad, his latest music-driven comedy about a fading boy band star, played by Nick Jonas, who steals a song from a little-known singer, played by Paul Rudd. That’s a story music lawyers know all too well.
-Prosecutors added a racketeering charge to Lil Durk’s murder-for-hire case, claiming his Only the Family (OTF) label is also a violent gang — and buying themselves a potentially easier path to secure a conviction at trial if they can’t prove the case’s core counts.
-Spotify was hit with a lawsuit claiming the streaming giant’s 1,000-play royalty threshold and “opaque” stream-filtering policies have led to a “systemic suppression” of pay for indie artists.
-Jermaine Jackson finally responded to a years-old lawsuit claiming he raped a session musician coordinator in 1988 — and he wants to axe a $6.5 million judgment the judge issued by default in his absence.
–Cardi B demanded that gossip blogger Tasha K refund more than $100,000 in legal fees as a punishment for violating a settlement by talking about her estranged husband Offset and NFL player Stefon Diggs, the father of her youngest child.
-A singer who accused Travis Scott, SZA and Future of stealing their 2023 hit “Telekinesis” from an unreleased demo track she created with Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) dropped her lawsuit — telling Billboard that she had “decided to forgive” Scott and move on.
