Ruben Studdard Sues Clothing Maker
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard has sued hip-hop clothing maker 205 Flava Inc., saying the company wrongly profited from his image after he wore its jerseys on the singing competition.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Birmingham attorney Byron Perkins and New York attorneys Tom J. Ferber and David S. Levine, seeks an injunction to stop the unauthorized use of Studdard's image.
Studdard wore the oversized jerseys adorned with the number 205 — the area code of his hometown, Birmingham — at the beginning of the Fox reality series, but stopped wearing them and spruced up his image as the competition got tighter.
The lawsuit says the defendants have unfairly and unlawfully exploited and capitalized on Studdard's popularity.
It estimates the company has made at least $2 million in sales after exploiting Studdard's image, and that Studdard is entitled to some of the profits.
Flava founders Frederick and Willie Jenkins of Birmingham are named as defendants. Birmingham attorney LaVeeda Battle, who has done work for the company, said she was shocked and disappointed a lawsuit has been filed. She said it's untrue the brothers exploited Studdard.
"They have bent over backwards to help him, and they are really disappointed in his conduct at this point," she told The Birmingham News for a story Friday.
Perkins said Thursday he asked the company in a letter months ago to stop using Studdard's image to sell shirts, and that the company agreed to stop. But he said Studdard's picture remains prominently displayed on the Web site.
Perkins also said Studdard has tried to work with Flava in resolving the issue, but the company has refused to produce financial books and records he requested.
"We feel very strongly that 205 Flava benefited from their relationship," Perkins said. "I can't advise my client what's fair and equitable to him unless I have some idea as to how much their income changed prior to Ruben Studdard and 'American Idol' and after."
When Studdard became one of 32 finalists on the show's second season, he approached the store owners about wearing a jersey to support his hometown. The lawsuit said the original jerseys displayed a small 205, but that Studdard asked for a larger print of 205 on the front.
The singer began wearing the shirts, and fans around the world started ordering them. Studdard won the competition in May and secured a recording deal. He and the Jenkins brothers parted ways in June, with Studdard saying he would no longer wear the shirts.
Studdard has declined to say what the rift was about. The Jenkins brothers have said the differences concerned money.
Seal Readies First Album In Five Years
Seal will on Sept. 9 release "Seal IV," his first Warner Bros. album in five years. The set's first single, "Waiting for You," debuted last week at No. 16 on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart and is available for paid download from Seal's official Web site and Apple's iTunes Music Store. Album track "Get It Together" has been serviced to clubs for airplay consideration.
Produced by longtime collaborator Trevor Horn, "Seal IV" is the follow-up to 1998's "Human Being," which debuted at No. 22 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 489,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Seal has kept a low profile since then, resurfacing in 2000 with a new song, "This Could Be Heaven," on "The Family Man" soundtrack. That cut reached No. 23 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Although no tour dates have been announced, Seal will be visible on TV around the album's release date. He will appear Sept. 11 on CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman," the following day on NBC's "Today" and Sept. 15 on the syndicated "Live With Regis and Kelly."
Here is the track list for "Seal IV":
"Let Me Roll"
"Get It Together"
"Love's Divine"
"Waiting for You"
"My Vision"
"Don't Make Me Wait"
"Touch"
"Where There's Gold"
"Loneliest Star"
"Heavenly ... [Good Feeling]"
"Tinsel Town"
Run-DMC's McDaniels On Aftermath Of Jam Master Jay Murder
Darryl McDaniels, the DMC of Run-DMC, says that the still-unsolved shooting death of the group's Jam Master Jay is representative of the ongoing wave of violence affecting inner cities like New York, and he declines to fault the New York City Police Department.
When asked to comment on the fact that police have still not named any suspects in the October 2002 murder of the pioneering rap group's deejay, a hoarse McDaniels said: "There's a lot of murders that go down in the 'hood, so Jam Master Jay is just one amongst thousands of people that we know whose murders are unsolved, and he represents a problem in society."
McDaniels went on to warn members of the hip-hop community that more must be done to stem the tide of violence within their own communities and within the industry. "You'll see a lot of artists on TV that wait 'til somebody dies and then they'll show up and have a big benefit, they'll do a record, you know, in the memory of the person, and then we all go back to living the same way," DMC said. "I think it takes the artist's heart being more vocal and saying something, instead of 'I'm just representing the 'hood, you know what I'm saying.' They gotta really talk about what's going down."
Jam Master Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was shot and killed October 30 at a recording studio on Merrick Boulevard in the Jamaica section of Queens. He was 37.
Downloaders Don't Think of Copyright Laws
WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of Internet users who download music don't care whether they're violating copyright laws, according to a new survey that highlights the uphill enforcement battle facing the recording industry.
The survey published Thursday by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated that roughly 35 million American adults use file-sharing software, about 29 percent of Internet users. Those figures were generally consistent with other estimates of 60 million American users across all age groups.
The Pew survey was completed before the Recording Industry Association of America announced its aggressive campaign to sue individual computer users who illegally share "substantial" collections of music, so it was unclear from the survey whether the campaign was discouraging online piracy.
"Our data shows significant numbers didn't care about copyrights," said Lee Rainie, the director for the Washington-based Pew project. "The (threatened) lawsuits maybe have gotten their attention."
The survey said younger Americans, ages 18 to 29, were least worried about copyrights, with 72 percent saying they weren't concerned. It said 61 percent of Americans who were 30 to 49 years old were similarly unconcerned. Full-time students were the least concerned with violating copyright, with 82 percent saying they were not worried.
Pew researchers said differences between men and women, blacks, whites and Hispanics and between income groups were not statistically significant when measuring copyright concerns.
The RIAA, the trade group for the major recording labels, said the Pew study was outdated, adding that it believes its enforcement efforts have affected attitudes toward downloading music.
"We believe that the most powerful deterrent is the message that uploading or downloading copyrighted works without permission is against the law," the RIAA said in a statement. "We have worked hard to educate the public about what the law says and potential consequences, and other studies have shown that that message is beginning to take hold and will serve as an effective deterrent."
The chairman of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations began an inquiry Thursday into the industry's crackdown against music swappers, calling the campaign "excessive."
"Theft is theft, but in this country we don't cut off your arm or fingers for stealing," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who was a rock roadie during the 1960s.
In a letter to RIAA President Cary Sherman, Coleman criticized the group for issuing subpoenas to "unsuspecting grandparents whose grandchildren have used their personal computers" and others who may not know their computer is being used to download music.
He asked the RIAA to furnish him with a list of its subpoenas; its safeguards against invading privacy and making erroneous subpoenas; its standards for issuing subpoenas; and a description of how it collects evidence of illegal file sharing.
The RIAA said it would be "pleased" to provide Coleman the information he requested.
"It will confirm that our actions are entirely consistent with the law as enacted by the U.S. Congress and interpreted by the courts," the RIAA said in a statement.
When computer users download a copyrighted song, file-sharing software automatically makes it available for other Internet users to download, too. It is possible — and increasingly popular — to reconfigure the software to allow downloads but prevent sharing files, although this undermines the concept of public file-sharing networks.
The Pew survey said about 26 million American adults allow others to download music and other data files from their computers. These computer users were equally as likely to be men or women, and equally as likely to be white, black or Hispanic. But they tended to be younger, most often between 18 and 29.
The survey was based on interviews conducted during random telephone calls by Princeton Survey Research Associates during March, April and May among a sample of 2,515 adults in the continental United States. The margin for error was plus or minus 3 percent.