Search Results for: against me

A copyright lawsuit was filed Wednesday (October 31) in Manhattan’s Southern District Court against rapper Jay-Z and his various label affiliations by a woman claiming she wasn’t paid for her contribution to Jigga’s hit single “Izzo (H.O.V.A.).” Demme Ulloa asserts that it’s her singing “H to the Izzo/ V to the Izzay,” the melodic hook used in the chorus of the track, though she never signed a contract and thus far hasn’t seen a penny for her efforts, according to her lawyers. She’s seeking a permanent injunction to stop further sales of the song, $1 million and damages relating to… Read more »

MusicNet, the subscription-based music distribution company backed by RealNetworks and a handful of major record companies, said today that it has named former MTV executive Alan McGlade as its chief executive officer (CEO). McGlade, most recently president and CEO of MTV’s The Box Music Network, takes over from RealNetworks Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser, who is chairman of MusicNet and had been interim CEO since it lured AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and the EMI Group to the venture. MusicNet, which has since brought on board independent label Zomba Recording Corp. as a fifth partner, is facing a probe by… Read more »

A California state senator plans to draft a bill that would free recording artists from restrictive, multi-year contracts, a system stars have attacked as unfairly stacked in favor of the major music labels. Under current California law, record companies are granted a special exemption that allows them to sue musicians and singers for albums not produced over the course of seven-year contracts. Stars including Don Henley, Courtney Love and the Dixie Chicks testified in the state Senate last month that the special status granted to the record labels in California in 1987 was unfair and should be repealed. State Sen.… Read more »

Federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel Wednesday deferred a decision on a request by recording giants for a summary judgement in their long-running copyright infringement suit against song-swap service Napster. “She took it under consideration and Napster threw a lot of issues on the wall. Patel was interested in a few of them, but at the end of the day, there is no question that liability is going to be found and damages will be assessed,” said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents music companies. Issues which came under… Read more »

Voting is currently going on for the 2002 class of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and once again Black Sabbath is among the finalists on the ballot. Frontman Ozzy Osbourne has made many caustic comments about the Hall and has intimated that he has no interest in being thus enshrined. However, in a recent chat with LAUNCH, Osbourne changed his tone somewhat and indicated that, if elected, he would serve. “I’ve voiced my opinion about it,” he explained. “I don’t really believe in it, to the respect that it’s not voted by the people-it’s voted by the committee.… Read more »

On its first day back from summer recess, the U.S. Supreme Court came out swinging Monday for the entertainment and media business, declining to review two libel cases and a suit brought by a Maryland quiltmaker alleging that producer Steven Spielberg bilked her for designs used in the 1995 picture “How to Make an American Quilt.” Furthermore, in a case tracked by the music business, the robes said rocker Nicholas Kassbaum had the right to mention that he used to be with the hit band Steppenwolf. Other members of the band alleged that Kassbaum – aka Nick St. Nicholas –… Read more »

American songwriters and music publishers have reached preliminary agreement with the on-line file sharing service Napster to settle the class-action lawsuit currently pending in federal court in California. The agreement includes terms under which the songwriters and music publishers will license their music to Napster’s new membership-based service. The announcement of the proposed settlement was made jointly by Edward P. Murphy, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc., Gary L. Churgin, president and CEO of The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., George David Weiss, president of The Songwriters’ Guild of America, Inc., and Napster president and CEO Konrad… Read more »

Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson has released a statement clarifying and apologizing for comments he made on MuchMusic last week. While the group visited the network’s Toronto studio in the wake of the terrorist attacks against the United States, Richardson said, “I just think [the United States] are a little bit of an arrogant nation, and maybe this is a little bit of a humbling experience. It raises questions in my mind, what has our government done to provoke this action, that we don’t know about?” This week, after by beginning with thanks to fans for the “love and support you’ve… Read more »

A new lawsuit filed against MP3.com seeks to hold the San Diego music-locker service liable not only for songs it improperly copied and distributed, but also for every bootleg track exchanged through Napster and other underground file-swapping services. The suit, filed on behalf of 52 independent songwriters and music publishers, accuses MP3.com of “viral” infringement. It contends that MP3.com’s technology set the stage for widespread music piracy, enabling bootlegged songs to pass from computer to computer faster than you can say “Oops, I Did It Again.” The argument goes like this: MP3.com made compressed copies of about 900,000 songs, which… Read more »

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted made his first live appearance with his new band, EchoBrain, on Sunday, playing an hour-long set of heavy yet melodic rock to close out Nadine’s Wild Weekend, a showcase of Bay Area bands. Newsted left Metallica in January, partly due to a strict policy barring side projects, and he had an air of rebirth about him at the posh Bimbo’s 365 Club. “Playing other types of music with other people always enabled me to play better for Metallica,” Newsted said before the show. “It really kept me fresh to hit that loud stuff, my forte.… Read more »