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…
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On July 20th, 2022, a Swedish company known as Epidemic Sound filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that in creating its “Reels Remix” feature, Meta (the company that owns Facebook and Instagram) has infringed on Epidemic’s copyrighted music. Here is what the case is about: Meta…
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The 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…
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On 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,…
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On 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 Joe Carlini (“Carlini”), author of an unpublished screenplay entitled What the F Is He Thinking?, filed suit in August 2015 against Paramount Pictures, Black…
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On 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…
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On 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.,…
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On 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…
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On 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.”…
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On October 5, 2021, Brandon Cooper, and his producer, Timothy Valentine, filed a copyright infringement suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Drake, Chris Brown, and seven other songwriters credited on Drake and Brown’s track “No Guidance.” “No Guidance” is an R&B Grammy-nominated song that landed at number…
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