Tagged: copyrightinfringement

If you've spent any time downloading music (or other things) from the internet, you have probably used MegaUpload. Hell, sometimes even artists use MegaUpload to share their mixtapes and whatnot, just because it's so easy. It's probably this ease of use that has led MegaUpload to become one of, if not the , main source of free downloads on the internet. It was bound to catch up with them in the end. If you try to head to Megaupload.com right now you'll find that the site is already gone. Federal prosecutors from Virginia have torn [...]

Filed under: News , Holy Hell Hayley Madden,Redferns/Verve Nearly 45 years after a banana appeared on their iconic 1967 debut album, the Velvet Underground are suing the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts citing copyright infringement and seeking unspecified damages. According to the New York Post -- and also reported by Exclaim -- Lou Reed and John Cale claim the image's use [...]

Max Gregory Warren, a songwriter living in Sharon, PA, has filed a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh-based hip-hop artist Wiz Khalifa claiming that Khalifa lifted the concept for his single "Black & Yellow" from a song Warren wrote in late 2007, reports AllHipHop . The suit, which seeks $2,375,000 in damages, accuses Khalifa (as well as his publishing company and labels) of fraud and deceit, copyright infringement, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment. From AllHipHop : The lawsuit claims that Warren authored a song titled "Pink N Yellow," in November of 2007. He says he copyrighted [...]

Does Justin Bieber even know what he's doing? I'm not sure how long ago this photo was taken, but a fan submitted it to Starz Uncut and had this to say about it: "I cannot believe the little sh*t threw up westside and started acting hard like he got jumped into a gang or something, does he know he could get shot up for something like that." In related Bieber news [...]

Filed under: News , I Fought the Law Fotos International, Getty Images One of the problems with writing music -- or any creative pursuit, really -- is that you can't really explain or prove how you came up with an idea. Men at Work just found that out the hard way. According to AP , the band will have to fork over 5 percent of the royalties from its hit 'Down Under' [...]

Martin F. Frascogna specializes in the intersection between music and international law. His niche is working with internationally-based artists, labels and publishers, as well as a substantial roster of "indie" musicians. He is the author of the self-published series: "How to Market and Promote Music Internationally," which includes the titles "How to Market & Promote Music in SWEDEN," "How to Market & Promote Music in ITALY" and "How to Market & Promote Music in CANADA". He is also the co-author of the book "Entertainment Law For the General Practitioner," released by the American Bar Association. He [...]

Jay-Z and Kanye West might currently be perched nicely on the charts , but their Watch The Throne LP could have the two Hip Hop Cash Kings sitting with a royal pain in the rear, to boot. Concrete Loop caught wind yesterday of a blog posting by publisher Numero Uno Group that apparently cited Jay and 'Ye are guilty of copyright infringement with Throne track "The Joy." We say "apparently," because the Numero Ono post has since been removed . [...]

Though they may fancy themselves to be kings of hip-hop ( and, to a certain extent, rightfully so ), Jay-Z and Kanye West of The Throne are not infallible. Like 50 Cent and the Black Eyed Peas before them, Def Jam Recordings, the label responsible for releasing the duo's shining artistic statement Watch the Throne , is being accused of copyright infringement. The accuser in this instance is The Numero Group, an archival record label that deals with "finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile [...]

Michael Robertson A federal judge ruled in the favor of Michael Robertson and his MP3tunes.com music cloud locker site, and essentially all others like it in a not guilty verdict for copyright infringement. Lawyers for EMI and 14 other record companies argued that Robertson's streaming service was akin to a public performance and demanded a royalty-33,000 to be exact, but New York judge Judge William H. Pauley III found them not guilty of promoting infringement aside from 350 specific counts. After his victory, Robertson publicly stated that consumers will [...]

Photos by Erica Simone and Zappos (respectively). Photo of Erica Simone from the exhibit "Nue York: Portrait of a Bare Urban Citizen" Does anyone fact check anymore?! The above photo is of Erica Simone from her exhibit " Nue York: Portrait of a Bare Urban Citizen ," which showed in New York in April 2011. Erica Simone photographed herself in various scenarios that New Yorkers find themselves in on a daily basis, but she added a unique twist - she appeared completely naked in the pictures. [...]

A new track from Leona Lewis just hit the Internet, and if you've heard "Collide," you'll notice that it bears an uncanny resemblance to a track from none other than Tim Berg, "Fade Into Darkness." We're used to hearing about friendships and partnerships in the DJ world, but this is one that certainly departs from that clean track record. Keep reading to get the lowdown. You may remember that Avicii previewed the track in question - which was at that time referred to as "Penguin" - all the [...]

Rihanna 's music video for ' S&M ' has landed her in hot water yet again. First the singer was sued by David LaChapelle in February, claiming it copied the "composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colors, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting" of his work. Now photographer Phillip Paulus is suing the singer for copyright infringement. Do you think the two photos above are identical? Paulus alleges [...]

If you thought that Kesha's song, "Tik Tok" sucked, then you're really going to hate "Queen" by Korean ripoff artist singer Son Dam Bi. If you listen to "Tik Tok" and "Queen" side-by-side, the beat and the music sound so familiar. It's so close that the instrumental version of "Queen" matches up with Kesha's song and it makes us wonder if it's plagiarized. Have a listen and let us know what you think: [...]

If you're a fan of eighties music, then I'm sure you've heard of Men At Work's song, "Land Down Under". What you might not have known is that they totally ripped off the flute solo, at least that's what we hear. Today, a judge ordered the band to fork over five percent of the royalties from the hit song, after the court determined that the flute solo was similar to the song, "Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree." [...]

In what is becoming a regular occurrence, Coldplay have found themselves in the middle of a lawsuit again. This time the suit is being brought by songwriter Sammie Lee Smith who claims the band stole three of his songs, " Yellow ," " Clocks " and " Trouble ". The accuser claims to have written all three tracks only to have the band steal all of them from him. Coldplay [...]

Few pop culture bits have a higher daytime visibility than the so-called " dance over " on The Ellen DeGeneres Show - a segment where the 3-million-viewers-a-day talk show host, accompanied by popular music, shimmies over to her desk following an opening monologue. However, a group of record labels is looking to cut the music on DeGeneres' gangly gag. According to papers filed on Wednesday in Nashville's District Court, 17 labels have banded together to slap [...]

From today's NY Post . Suing for "public performance"? More like "highway robbery." I only learned this a little while back, if one plays cd's in a bar, restaurant, coffee shop, the owners need to pay a monthly fee, a fee which most restaurant owners I know refuse to pay primarily on principle. Yeesh, if they're going to sue a tiny place like Pianos for "publically performing" music without paying for it, maybe they could go after those awful warbling street musicians butchering "Every Rose Has its Thorn" next? Cause you know Brett Michaels, he has to pay for [...]

According to reports on The Local and TorrentFreak , after only a day and a half of trial, the prosecution has dismissed the charges of "copyright infringement" against the popular torrent tracking site. He has amended the charges against Carl Lundström, Peter Sunde, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg by removing all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material" from the charge sheet filed with the district court in Stockholm, Sweden. The new charges will be changed simply to read "complicity to make (copyrighted material) available", thereby limiting it [...]