3 Count: Funky Lawsuit

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1: George Clinton Files $100 Million Copyright Lawsuit Against Former Business Partner

First off today, Steven Horowitz at Variety reports that musician George Clinton has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Armen Boladian, a former business partner, and Boladian’s company, Bridgeport Music.

According to the lawsuit, Boladian and others continue profiting from his music by fraudulently obtaining the copyrights to roughly 90 percent of his catalog. Clinton says that he intends to reclaim the rights to his music to build generational wealth for his family.

The lawsuit is just the latest legal battle between the two sides. The fight dates back to the early 1980s, when Clinton alleges that Boladian fabricated multiple agreements that assigned more rights to him. The two sides have filed various lawsuits against each other, including over copyright and defamation issues. Boladian, for his part, says that this case is a retread of issues already litigated.

2: Judge Says Meta Must Defend Claim It Stripped Copyright Info From Llama’s Training Fodder

Next up today, Thomas Claburn at The Register reports that a judge has ruled that Meta must face a claim that its AI systems remove copyright management information (CMI) from the various works on which they were trained.

Authors, including Richard Kadrey and Sarah Silverman, filed the lawsuit in July 2023. They accuse Meta of infringing on their work when training various AI systems. However, earlier this year, the case took a turn when the authors accused Meta of knowingly using pirated content to train its systems.

In addition to the regular copyright claims, the authors are also suing over removing CMI, a violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The judge expressed skepticism that the authors will succeed on those arguments, but agreed that dismissing them early in the lawsuit was inappropriate.

3: Vinyl Music Hall faces copyright suit over songs like ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’

Finally today, Jim Little at the Pensacola News Journal reports that Vinyl Music Hall, a local music venue, has been sued by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for failing to obtain a music license.

ASCAP is a performing rights organization that licenses musical compositions for use in public spaces such as bars, stores, restaurants and clubs. According to the lawsuit, the venue had an ASCAP license between 2010 and 2022 but cancelled the license that year.

However, according to ASCAP, Vinyl continued to use ASCAP-licensed music in the venue after cancelling. They claim to have attempted outreach multiple times but Vinyl refused offers for a new license. The lawsuit cites several songs played at the club on July 20 last year. The songs were part of a performance by an 80s cover band and were on the band’s playlist.

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