Kanye West Sued for Copyright Infringement, Again
Kanye West released his album titled “Donda 2” in February 2022 exclusively on the Stem Player MP3 platform. The album was very successful, bringing in over $2.2 million in sales in just one day. On June 29, 2022, Ultra International Music Publishing LLC (UIMP) filed a lawsuit against Kanye West for the unauthorized use of…
Read MoreThe Copyright Act contains all of the laws that apply to creative, “expressive” works, like music, photography, books, screenplays, and films. If someone copies your creative work, whether the “infringing work” be identical or “substantially similar”, you may have a claim for copyright infringement. However, you will generally need to do no less than three…
Read MoreIn early 2021, fine artist Joseph Morford filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against an artist named Maurizio Cattelan for copyright infringement. Morford alleged that Cattelan copied Morford’s art piece featuring a banana taped to a wall. Morford registered his artwork with the Copyright Office in 2000 and…
Read MoreOn April 25, 2022, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case concerning how different federal circuits analyze copyright infringement cases. The case that made its way to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with the allegation that Josh Groban’s hit song, “You Raise Me Up,” copied the Icelandic hit song,…
Read MoreOn March 3, 2022, a Ninth Circuit appellate panel upheld Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr.’s granting of a motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit regarding the 2019 film What Men Want. Joe Carlini (“Carlini”), author of an unpublished screenplay entitled What the F Is He Thinking?, filed suit in August 2015 against Paramount Pictures, Black…
Read MoreOn March 2, 2022, a Louisiana musician known as Sam Skully (“Skully”) filed a lawsuit in Louisiana federal court against recording artist “Drake” and Warner Music, among others, for allegedly stealing the instrumental from a song that Skully created, which Drake allegedly used in his hit singles “Nice for What” and “In My Feelings.” Skully…
Read MoreOn November 29, 2021, a Ninth Circuit panel agreed with a lower court in putting an end to a copyright case over “You Raise Me Up,” saying major record labels and Spotify did not transform a 1977 hit from Iceland into the chart-topper sung by Josh Groban. The panel turned down arguments from Johannsongs-Publishing Ltd.,…
Read MoreOn November 4, 2021, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, handed a loss to Atari concluding its lawsuit against Redbubble for selling merchandise with images allegedly stolen from Atari’s video games like Pong and Asteroids, finding Redbubble did not infringe upon any of Atari’s intellectual property. The…
Read MoreOn October 20, 2021, Plaintiffs Selton Shaw, Langston Shaw, and their production company, Changing the World Films, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, for copyright infringement against multiple Defendants, including producers Spike Lee and Nate Parker. Shelton and Shaw are brothers who co-wrote the Screenplay, “A Routine Stop.”…
Read More