• Former Smashing Pumpkins members James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky-Brown are suing Virgin Records, saying that they're not being properly compensated for Smashing Pumpkins downloads. Interesting timing, given that downloads of that song from the Batman And A Really Crappy Movie soundtrack shot up from 11 two weeks ago to 10,000-plus last week, thanks to its inclusion in the trailer for The Watchmen. [Reuters]

• Meanwhile, Billy Corgan frenemy Courtney Love is being sued by a management company who says that she hasn't paid them a 5% commission on last year's sale of the Nirvana catalog, a portion of which went for $19.5 million last year. [NYT]

• And finally (at least for now), Abkco Music, which controls the rights to the Rolling Stones' catalog, is suing Lil Wayne over his song "Playing With Fire," which they claim is a ripoff of the Stones' "Play With Fire." They're also offended that Weezy uses "explicit, sexist and offensive language" in the song, which seems like kind of a strange allegation given that the Stones weren't exactly saints. [Billboard]

The restaurant was completely empty. He walked in and was shouting through the restaurant for someone to seat him. I came around the corner and said something about him being a troublemaker. "Troublemaker?" he said. "I'm no troublemaker, baby." Clearly, right?

I was the only server on, so he was in my station. I'd seen him with the attorney Meshbesher. My coworkers and I were trying to decide what he was there for. I don't know if any of us said sexual harassment; we thought it might be theft. I don't know what all was guessed. But Meshbesher isn't a small name. He advertises everywhere; my coworkers were saying, "He must have a lot of money to get Meshbesher." He came in for lunch after meeting with Meshbesher.

He seemed in a pretty good mood. That day he was quiet and didn't say much. The next day he came in started talking about how he was at the club the previous night, and how Minnesota women are crazy. I said, "Well, maybe it's just you." I asked what he was in town for, and he said, "I'm talking to Meshbesher about a sexual harassment case." That's when I found out it was Brother Marquis. He was talking about how they did a gig at some club in, I believe, Inver Grove Heights. Some girl was up on stage was dancing with him or grinding on him, whatever he said. She accused him of touching her inappropriately. Meanwhile, he's saying "baby" this and "baby" that, and I thought, "Huh. I couldn't imagine you being charged with sexual harassment."

His idea of dressing up for Meshbesher, because you're supposed to look appropriate, was to look like Samuel L. Jackson or something, wearing a silk shirt and a hat—like a fisherman's cap, but backward. Which we were all laughing at, mind you. He was dressed like that, talking to a lawyer. The next day he came in all thugged out. He was talking about, why would he do that to a woman? He's been dealing with women for 20 years with his group. He was saying, for some reason he always has problems with women. I told him, "Maybe it's you." He just laughed: "No, I don't think so."

As he was leaving, he said, "All right, baby, I'll be back October 20." I muttered under my breath, "I'll take the day off." Fucking cartoon character. It was definitely entertaining, though.

2 Live Crew, "Me So Horny" [YouTube]

"When my legal team is finished with them, Taco Bell is going to have a new corporate slogan: 'We messed with the bull and got the horns,'" 50 Cent told AllHipHop.com in a statement.

While I'm all for people backlashing against things that are aggressively dopey—and reading the "offer letter" to 50 confirms that this stunt definitely falls under that rubric—I don't know if 50 should be talking about adding lawyers to this bad-publicity burrito. First of all, I'd think they'd be somewhat busy with his other problems; secondly, if there's anyone who right now should not be talking about things being leaked to the press against his will, it's Curtis Jackson.

Taco Bell Offers 50 A Deal; Rapper Not Amused [AllHipHop; HT Nah Right]

Omaha, Neb.-based Romeo Entertainment Group filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Cheyenne against SHARK, which stands for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, and its president Steve Hindi.



The lawsuit contends Hindi and SHARK, which is based in Geneva, Ill., used "false and misleading information" and "threats of negative publicity" in its effort to persuade entertainers to cancel their performances at the rodeo.



The lawsuit says Romeo Entertainment has lost more than $100,000 from Matchbox Twenty dropping out of its scheduled July 18 performance.



The lawsuit also blamed SHARK for singer Carrie Underwood's decision to cancel a scheduled performance at Frontier Days in 2006. It did not provide a dollar figure on the loss of the Underwood concert.



The lawsuit seeks a court order to stop Hindi and SHARK from contacting any entertainers that have agreed or may agree in the future to perform at Frontier Days.

Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Kelly Pickler, Sugarland, and several other country acts with thicker skin than city boy Rob Thomas are still scheduled to perform at the event in July. But you can see how SHARK's Web site could scare off the meek. Still, shouldn't the rodeo be suing SHARK for libel or defamation of character rather than suggesting the group shouldn't be allowed to talk to its contracted entertainers? It would seem the company would have to prove the falsehood of SHARK's claims either way, and then there wouldn't be any free speech issues involved.

Matchbox Twenty's Wyoming rodeo cancellation spurs lawsuit [International Herald-Tribune]
Shark's Website
Cheyenne Frontier Days' Website

In an even more extreme case of babymama drama, MC Breed has been arrested for refusal to pay child support.

According to The Flint Journal, Breed was picked up on a warrant at around 4:00 p.m. on Thursday by Genesee County Sheriff's deputies as him and a film crew left the Music Planet record store on Carpenter Rd. Police knew where to find the rapper, who now lives in Atlanta, after he mentioned that he would be signing autographs at Music Planet during a previous interview with The Flint Journal. Authorities say Breed owes $220,000 in back child support. Because of the arrest, Breed missed a 7:00 p.m. show at the Perani Arena with headliner Lil Wayne. The arrest is not the first of its kind for Breed. The MC previously served eight months in prison on a parole violation related to a separate child support case.

A recidivist! To be fair, the last minute of Breed's "Gotta Get Mine" should have warned women that he wasn't to be trusted.

Stay classy, guys.

50 Cent sued for eviction claim [BBC]
MC Breed arrested for failure to pay child support [XXL]

The appeals court agreed Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting organ theme, was entitled to co-authorship but said he will receive no money from past or future royalties.



"For nearly three years this claim has been a great strain upon myself and my family. I believe the original trial was unfair and the results wrong," Brooker said. "I would hope that now, we can all get on with our lives."



Lord Justice John Mummery said Fisher was "guilty of excessive and inexcusable delay in asserting his claim."

Does anyone remember that goofy video for "Pale" starring Harry Dean Stanton that played on VH1 back in the Peter Noone era? It was part of a Deja View, "The Ultimate '60s Party Video," a bunch of short films set to sixties jams starring actors like Michael Pare and Bronson Pinchot. I believe Stanton was playing solitaire while a girl was getting married and then somebody died and a ghost was driving the limo or something. It's sadly not on YouTube.

Star wins "Whiter Shade Of Pale" Appeal [Yahoo! News]

PointDev's CEO, Agustoni Paul-Henry, underlines what a douche move Sony BMG has been pulling.

"We are forced to watch every week if key software pirates are not [sic] on the Internet. We are a small company of six employees. Instead of trying to protect us, we could spend this time to develop ourselves.

I think piracy is linked to the policy of a company. If the employee has the necessary funding to buy the software he needs, he will. If this is not the case, he will find alternative ways, as the work must be done in one way or another."

PointDev is suing for under half a million in damages, about what the RIAA would hit you for if you shared three songs via the peer-to-peer program of your choice.

Sony BMG's hypocrisy: company busted for using warez [Ars Technica]

From D'Mystro's Crib, his mind-sucking vortex of a website. Again, [sic]. [sic], [sic] [sic].

DMystro began recording in the early 1980's as studio musican at MTV studio's in frankfurt west germany.

D'Mystro is member of the 1985 Go Go /R&B/ Hip Hop"Icee Hott" Band signed under EMI/MANHATAN Records, and released a hit Maxi Single entitled "Hollar at me. " Also filmed a music video with Kurtis blow and billboard magazine and Major label executives.

DMystro musician skills took him in the studio with the group "Snap" to remix of the powerful and Platinuum song "the power" released on ARISTA. After returning to stateside in 1991, D'Mystro partnered up with Darryl Dash, (MCA-Universal songwriter) both founded DPE Records entity, nationally independent publishing label. This started to Kicked off a decade of songwriting and producing hits for some of the industries promising up and coming R&B Artists; Tanya Blunt Vocalist-Actress starred in (Sister act)and Tommie Johnson (Background vocalist for Patti Labelle, Rodney Mansfield, and Crystal Waters, Eric Gable, Keith Martin, Cliff Jones, Eric Roberson, Prophet Jones, William Becton, Kirk Franklin, Brian Moore , SOS Band and Mighty Clouds of Joy, Boyz to Menn,Female and the Black Birds.

The bio also claims he worked on Kanye's Graduation in 2007, which makes you wonder why he didn't notice West was adding vulgar and offensive imagery to his 20-year-old jam. Anyone want to transfer their 12" of Icee Hott's "Hollar At Me" to mp3? Please?

Songwriter to Kanye — You Jacked My "Good Life"! [TMZ]

In the claim, Mr. Campbell said that Mr. Ratner and Jay-Z worked "in concert" with Barclays, and "profited from the African Slave Trade and continue to profit from these gains, through a conspiracy dating back hundreds of years and continue to date to oppress Black people, enslave them, unlawfully deport them to all corners of the Earth..."

Well, this should make things interesting backstage at the next Hip-Hop Honors. Naturally, Ratner is brushing off Herc'sthe beef as a bunch of hooey, and though it remains to be seen how the suit will progress, it's unlikely the currently mum Jay-Z legal team will let such claims stand unchallenged. Whatever non-rap ventures he's undertaken post-Black Album, it's doubtful Jay wants "accused slave trade profiteer" as a bullet point on future resumes.

UPDATE: As a few eagle-eyed commenters have noted, the Observer has since updated its story to reflect that the man who has filed the lawsuit is "a different Clive Campbell," this one a "Brooklyn-based activist," than the Campbell we know and love as DJ Kool Herc. Apologies to Herc for repeating the error.

Hip-Hop Founder Filing $5 B. Claim Against Jay-Z, Bruce Ratner [NY Observer/Photo: AP]

The artists are planning lawsuits both in the U.S. and in Sweden, said Lars Sandberg, a lawyer assigned to work on the Swedish side of the case.

"Work has been initiated to claim damages from those who are behind The Pirate Bay," Sandberg told The Associated Press. He confirmed reports in Swedish media that the artists would seek damages of millions of dollars.

While Prince is looking for damages from downloads of his entire catalog, the Village People have but one target: Unpaid-for downloads of "YMCA," the group's dancefloor-filling megahit. You'd think that they'd at least want people to pony up for "Sex Over The Phone," too, what with it being such a viral hit and all, but I guess it's all about the baby (dance) steps.

Prince and Village People to sue file-sharing site Pirate Bay: lawyer [AP via IHT; HT TorrentFreak, whose nauseating pro-TPB attitude isn't safe for lunch and whose super-homophobic comments are even less safe for your view of humanity]

Yesterday I received notice that Yoko Ono had filed a law suit against me, asking for a cancellation of the trademark that I own for the name "Lennon." This could very well mean the career that I have worked so hard at, the one you all have believed in, may come to an end. I wanted to address the situation to all my fans because without you I am nothing and it's not fair to everyone who has believed in my music not to be properly informed of this pure bullshit.

When I first started playing music at 14, I was known for the most part as "The Lennon Murphy Band". Not a name I was very fond of, no one could ever agree on anything so it made sense. A few months later some of the shows started being marketed using my full name as well as some that just using "Lennon." There was never really any consistancy but there was well enough to justify stating that "Lennon" had been used in fact since 1997. When I signed with Arista Records in 2000 at the age of 18, a marketing decision was made to continue being known just as Lennon. In all honesty, I didn't care. I was just happy to sign a record deal, make an album, and pay my bills.


In 2000 Arista Records addressed the issue of Yoko Ono potentially having a problem with our use of the name. My product manager at Arista was ironically the son of the lawyer who actually represents Yoko. So he approached Yoko, to make her aware of the use, evidently giving her blessing as Arista proceeded forward with the album release and at the same time filing for the trademark. Its takes time for all of the legal work to go through, but finally in 2003 I was granted by the United States Patent & Trademark office the ownership in the name Lennon for musical use.

8 long hard years pass and no one says a word. Just 2 days before the statue of limitations was up this very same lawyer we went to in 2000 filed their complain. I accusing me of falsly representing myself and causing confusion in the market place that has damaged to the John Lennon name.

I'm not sure what confusion I could be causing since I don't have the $50,000 to hire a lawyer and fight this. If people were confusing me with John Lennon and accidently buying my records I should have more than enough money to live my life and hire a lawyer? I wish that was the case. I haven't worked since Oct. 2007, so I live on just enough to get through the months until I get back on the road. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet in this situation, and I'm stressed, angry, and scared.

This is my life. I have no respect for the name Murphy. It was my father's name we will leave it at that. I have represented myself as Lennon because this is my name. That was the name that meant so much to my mother. That's who I am. I'm pissed and hurt that someone in Yoko's position has nothing better to do than fuck with my life, and collect the $25,000,000 a year that the John Lennon estate brings in. Yes, this is a real number or close enough to it. This is how I look at it. With that kind of income she probably pays more in taxes every year the you or I will make in our whole life time. So what do I have that can be of such value to her after 8 years. I don't want to lose my name all because someone is bored in their life of luxury.

I don't know what's going to be the outcome, but I just wanted everyone to know what is going on. I never falsified my intentions, I never used John Lennon for my benefit, and I never took one cent out of Yoko's bank account. I play music, my name is Lennon, and the most heartbreaking thing out of this whole situation is the insult it gives to my late mother and who she believed in; on top of demeaning the man that John Lennon was and will always be.

For as she wrote:

There is both a relief and a sadness when you finally break through to freedom. You wonder if the soil under your feet will remain constant or if the memories will ever shake out of your mind? Can I adjust to the silence? Should I fear the limited interruptions which sedate souls? I count my blessing, for these walls tell no tales of the horrors of the past. My child's newly acquired goldfish know nothing of crushed dreams. The fishing gear I bought looks to the many days on the lake we can share with each other, a daughter and her mother. How odd to name a child after a gentle songwriter who loved his son and baked bread, what joy my lennon brings me.
Kathleen Murphy

All of you out there make me who I am, it's just as much your business when someone wants to take it away.

Lennon

Lennon [Official site]

Last year WMG engaged in similar lawsuit-threatening tactics against the streaming-media site imeem, and that company subsequently caved, making licensing agreements with the majors that will probably run it into the ground sooner or later. I'm going to guess that the "sue first, chat later" tactic is being repeated here, especially since Seeqpod's been getting a fair bit of positive press for its iPhone compatibility lately, and what better way to deflate said press with a nice, juicy court document? Here's hoping that the Hype Machine and elbo.ws are watching their backs, or at least responding to their DMCA takedown notices in a timely manner.

Seeqpod [Official site]
Warner Music Suing MP3 Search Engine Seeqpod (WMG) [Silicon Alley Insider]

Rock Star Sues Rockstar Beverages [AP]
[Photo: AP]

Settlement reached in Avril Lavigne 'Girlfriend' lawsuit

Surely those all-Christmas radio stations out there have already played "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" 1,495 times during their all-day holiday blocks, but the incessant playing of that song may prove to be bittersweet for Elmo Shropshire, who warbled the almost-30-years-old song about a tippling grandmother lo those many years ago:

Elmo Shropshire was sued for breach of contract Monday by a company that claims he interfered in a $1 million-plus deal to sell musical trucks, bobblehead dolls, snow globes and cookie jars featuring characters from an animated show based on the novelty song.

The tale about Santa mowing down a tipsy grandma with his sleigh was first heard in 1979 and has become a holiday favorite. It inspired a 2000 animated TV program that continues to run seasonally around the world.

The Fred Rappoport Co. of California contends it has the rights to use the song for products featuring characters from that program. Rappoport claims it got those specific rights under a 2004 settlement of a lawsuit filed by Shropshire.

The new lawsuit, which seeks at least $2 million in damages, was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It contends that Shropshire this month improperly sent cease-and-desist letters to two companies that made a deal with Rappoport to market products featuring characters from the animated show.

Shropshire, who lives north of San Francisco in Novato, contended Tuesday that he was legally enforcing his rights to the song.

Rappoport "can sell any characters he wants from the movie," Shropshire said. "But I own the copyright from the song. He can't use the song without my permission."

So he can use the characters... but not reference the song? Confusing! Although this is probably setting the stage for a dis track based on a screwed and chopped sample of "Grandma" to show up on a holiday-themed truck-stop mixtape sometime in the next two weeks or so.

'Grandma ... Reindeer' Singer Is Sued [AP]
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer [YouTube]

"Usenet.com has promoted and advanced an illegal business model on the backs of the music community," Duckworth said in a statement. "It may be theft in a slightly different online form, but the illicit business model of usenet.com is little different than the Groksters of the world.... This business should not be allowed to remain a brazen outlaw that actively shirks its legal obligations."

Now, if the RIAA had teamed up with, say, Vivid Video for its copyright suit, I might be rolling my eyes a little less at this allegation; surely the pornography peddlers of the world are losing boatloads more money than the music industry, especially given that Usenet is such an arcane platform. How Sendspace et al have escaped litigation threats up to this point is beyond me, although I'm guessing it's just a sign of the RIAA's chronic behind-the-timesism. Which clearly means that there's only one target that the majors can try to take out next: Gopher.

RIAA Sues Usenet, Decries it as 'Brazen Outlaw' [Wired]

What have our antipiracy efforts yielded? A legal marketplace that is far better because of what we've done: Digital revenues doubled as a percentage of the market in 2006, from 8 percent in 2005 to more than 16 percent. An illegal marketplace which, prior to the initiation of our deterrence program, experienced exponential illicit P2P use has now mostly stabilized—the average number of households downloading music illegally on a monthly basis was roughly 7 million in 2003 and is now 7.8 million. Compare that with the growth in broadband access to the Internet, which grew from 38 million home users in 2003 to at least 80 million today.

Can there be any doubt that a whole lot more of those broadband subscribers would be illegally downloading but for the lawsuits? Surveys confirm that fact: People who have stopped illegal downloading cite the fear of being sued as the first or second reason for changing their behavior. And, lastly, there is a fundamentally different understanding of what you can and can't do on the Internet—37 percent of those surveyed in 2003 thought it was illegal to distribute music for free over the Internet; now that number has grown to 73 percent.

Think about it. What would the online music world look like had we done nothing? It's not a pretty picture: skyrocketing illegal peer-to-peer downloading without even a second thought about its legality or morality, and a small handful of legitimate businesses struggling to gain traction in a marketplace overwhelmingly dominated by piracy.

Yes, that's so much better than those same "legitimate businesses" having an ever-growing reputation for being hostile to their customers! Especially when you go crowing in print about how you've instilled fear in said consumers. And a question about those scaredy-cats who have run away from Kazaa: Have those people who have "stopped illegal downloading" started buying music again at all, or have they just decided to put their time into other pursuits like Halo 3 and/or knitting? Ah, that's the problem with statistics—even when you want to cite them triumphantly, there's always some detail or other that gets left out.

Rights and wrongs in the antipiracy struggle [ZDNet]

First, the labels were able to match a username and IP address with Thomas; who used the same username ("tereastarr") on her Hotmail account and her Kazaa account; second, presiding judge Michael Davis instructed the jury that simply making the files available was, in fact, copyright infringement, so any songs that were in her Kazaa folder were in fact songs that were being infringed upon. And as far as the amount of the damages, this instruction to the jury came into play:

JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 22: In this case, each plaintiff has elected to recover "statutory damages" instead of its actual damages and profits. Under the Copyright Act, each plaintiff is entitled to a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 per act of infringement (that is, per sound recording downloaded or distributed without license), as you consider just. If, however, you find that the defendant's conduct was willful, then each plaintiff is entitled to a sum of up to $150,000 per act of infringement (that is, per sound recording downloaded or distributed without license), as you consider just.

In determining the just amount of statutory damages for an infringing defendant, you may consider the willfulness of the defendant's conduct, the defendant's innocence, the defendant's continuation of infringement after notice or knowledge of the copyright or in reckless disregard of the copyright, effect of the defendant's prior or concurrent copyright infringement activity, and whether profit or gain was established.

The jury decided on a fine of $9,250 per song (the case focused on 24 songs), which totaled $222,000—a much higher sum than the $4,000 that people who are targeted by the RIAA eventually settle for. Which means that we should probably expect more and more litigation to come down the pike, as people figure out what BigChampagne head Eric Garland calls "new and innovative tools for infringement online" while labels run for the biggish paydays afforded by these suits and put off figuring out revenue streams that don't involve paying squads of lawyers hundreds of dollars per hour for another few years or so.

Four reasons why the RIAA won a jury verdict of $220,000 [news.com]