DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Decades after lawsuits from record labels killed Napster, Sony Music says the descendant of the industry-shaking file-sharing service is still ignoring copyright law.
Shortly after Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker’s creation took the country by storm in 1999, it was facing infringement lawsuits, including from Metallica and the major labels. Those cases were quickly successful: A federal judge issued an injunction in 2001, effectively forcing Napster to shut down.
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But the Napster name never really died. In the years since, it’s been purchased by a series of owners who wanted to capitalize on the name recognition for a fully-licensed music service — first by Roxio, then by Best Buy, and finally in 2011 by Rhapsody, an early music streaming service, which rebranded itself under the Napster banner in 2016.
According to Sony Music, Napster’s pirate spirit never died, either. In a lawsuit filed last week, the music giant claimed that the company owes millions in unpaid royalties after refusing to pay its licensing bills for more than a year. And Sony says Napster has continued to illegally play songs even after the record company terminated the deal.
For more details on the new Napster case — including access to the actual lawsuit filed in court — go read the full story here.
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Other top stories this week…
TURNING THE PAGE – Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page reached a settlement with songwriter Jake Holmes to resolve the latest lawsuit over the disputed credits to the band’s iconic song “Dazed and Confused.” Holmes has claimed for years that he actually wrote the song in 1967 and that Page simply reworked it into the famed 1969 Zeppelin track without credit or permission.
CLEARANCE COMPLEXITIES – Beyoncé’s company, Parkwood Entertainment, was hit with a copyright lawsuit over a sample used as the introduction to her hit 2022 Renaissance track “Alien Superstar.” The case, filed by the owner of indie house music label Soundmen on Wax Records, claims that Bey cleared the sample — but did so with the wrong party.
NO BAIL FOR DIDDY – A month after his stunning acquittal on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges, Diddy was denied bail again, meaning he’ll remain in jail until his October sentencing for interstate prostitution. The star’s lawyers argued it was extremely unusual for a mere customer of prostitution to be denied bail, and got unexpected support from one of his alleged victims. But the judge was unswayed, ruling that the argument might work if the case “didn’t involve evidence of violence, coercion or subjugation in connection with the acts of prostitution at issue, but the record here contains evidence of all three.”
BOOSIE PLEA DEAL – Rapper Boosie Badazz took a plea deal in his federal gun possession case, more than two years after he was first charged. Prosecutors charged the rapper in 2023 after authorities spotted a handgun tucked into his waistband in an Instagram video — a crime because Boosie was previously convicted on drug charges back in 2011. The rapper announced the deal on social media, telling fans he was “tired of fighting” and had made “the right decision.”
UGLY ALLEGATIONS – Kate Bowman, the wife of former Maroon 5 member Mickey Madden, made shocking allegations in court filings seeking a restraining order, claiming the bassist repeatedly physically assaulted her after she confronted him about “sexting with teenage girls.” The filings said that the texts were sent to “at least two high school girls” and included “fantasies” about “raping one of the girls.”
TUPAC MURDER CASE – Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man facing a looming murder trial over the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, filed a petition asking the Nevada Supreme Court to dismiss the charges. Attorneys for Davis say prosecutors lack any hard evidence tying him to the crime and are instead improperly relying solely on statements he’s made about the killing, including a seeming confession in a 2019 tell-all memoir.
SOLO SETTLEMENT – Ty Dolla $ign reached a settlement to escape a copyright lawsuit over an allegedly uncleared sample on Vultures 1. But the case, filed by a group of Memphis rappers, will move ahead against Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), who was not involved in the settlement.
DIVORCE DRAMA – Tyrese’s ex-wife Samantha asked to have the singer thrown in jail over accusations that he still owes almost $500,000 in fees to her attorneys in their never-ending divorce case. The filing claims that the Fast & Furious star has “made no effort whatsoever” to pay the fine and should be held in criminal contempt for his “blatant disregard for this court’s order on fees.”
BRING IN BIGLAW – The organizers of FireAid, the all-star benefit concerts for Los Angeles wildfire relief in January, hired the BigLaw firm of Latham & Watkins to review its grantmaking process amid a growing furor about the distribution of $100 million raised by the events. The blowback has been fueled by allegations from Republican congressman Kevin Kiley, who claims donations were diverted to undeserving non-profits; FireAid has called those claims “misinformation.”
CARDI IN COURT – Cardi B won a key ruling in a civil lawsuit that claims she assaulted a security guard at her OBGYN’s office in 2018. With the trial looming, a judge ruled that the plaintiff’s lawyers cannot dig up dirt from Cardi’s past in front of the jury, including her past work as a stripper or her misdemeanor assault conviction for throwing a bottle at a New York strip club.
DANCE COPYRIGHTS – Fefe Burgos, a dancer who’s worked with Usher, Jennifer Lopez and Selena Gomez, filed a lawsuit against Fortnite maker Epic Games, claiming it stole his copyrighted choreography from a recent Rauw Alejandro music video and then sold it as an add-on within the popular online video game.
BREEZY BRAND BATTLE – Chris Brown and Live Nation were hit with a lawsuit from a Miami-based retailer called Breezy Swim over his Breezy Bowl XX tour — a name that the company claims infringes its trademark rights.
LEGAL BILLS REPAID – An ex-staffer suing Ye (formerly Kanye West) for antisemitism asked a judge to order the rapper to repay nearly $100,000 incurred by her legal team in fending off a “frivolous and absurd” motion he unsuccessfully filed in the case. Ye’s lawyers argued that his offensive outbursts were part of a “provocative performance” protected by the First Amendment, but the judge flatly rejected that argument in June.
STIFF PUNISHMENT – Federal prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Latin music executive Ángel Del Villar to more than six years in prison following his conviction in March on felony charges of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels. The feds said the sanctions Del Villar violated were imposed on “one of the world’s most brutal criminal organizations.”
BATTLE OF THE BAND – Chris Beattie, the founding bassist for hardcore band Hatebreed, filed a lawsuit alleging that the group’s frontman, Jamey Jasta, had unceremoniously kicked him out after 30 years so he could get a larger cut of the band’s profits. Beattie claims Jasta used a “false narrative” — that the bassist had harassed a Live Nation security guard at a concert — as a pretext to oust him.
