Category: Lawsuits

Singer Mindy McCready sues former boyfriend for $3M over alleged beating
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Mindy McCready has sued her former boyfriend for $3 million, claiming he beat her last year and that the incident hurt her music career.
McCready, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996, Guys Do It All the Time, sued last month in Davidson County circuit court, the Tennessean newspaper reported Thursday. The lawsuit claims the alleged assault hindered the 30-year-old country singer’s ability to book performances and other work.
William McKnight is facing charges of attempted murder and breaking into McCready’s home and beating her severely in May 2005.
“One of the problems is that, literally, venues worried about whether … McKnight would show up and someone would get hurt,” McCready spokesman Paul Berg said. “It’s been very interesting to see how difficult it’s been to even put her someplace to do a free show to raise money.”
McKnight is employed, his lawyer John Norris said Thursday, but doesn’t have the amount of money that McCready is asking for. The lawsuit says McKnight is living in Brandon, Fla.
“The $3 million is out of proportion to any actual damages she actually sustained,” Norris said.
Berg said McCready is “not expecting to get anything out of this. Many people have to file civil litigation to set the record straight, whether or not they collect.”
Norris said McKnight was disappointed by the lawsuit. “Based on the circumstances of this relationship, it’s hard to understand where she came up with that figure,” he said.
Berg said the $3 million was derived from both lost potential income and the emotional trauma McCready endured.
McCready’s legal problems began before the alleged attack.
In 2004, she pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining OxyContin at a Brentwood pharmacy. She was also arrested and charged with drunken driving and still faces that charge and another for violating probation.
Last July, McCready learned she was wanted in Arizona for her involvement with an alleged con man, but the charges were dropped in November.
McCready is raising her two-month-old son, Zander. She claims McKnight is the father.
If the singer wins her lawsuit, any money collected will go into a trust fund for her son, Berg said.

Pitt-Jolie go public, celeb mags to court
LONDON – People and Hello! magazines launched legal action Wednesday against two Web sites that published a picture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt with their newborn daughter.
Pitt and Jolie sold rights to the images of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, born May 27 in Namibia, through Getty Images photo agency. The couple said all proceeds would be donated to a charity, not yet named.
People magazine paid a reported $4 million for the right to release the pictures in North America, while Hello! obtained British rights.
The embargo on the images was broken when two gossip Web sites posted an apparent image of the front cover of Hello!
Hello! denies leaking the photo, saying its cover was kept strictly under wraps. The magazine said it and People “have taken immediate legal action to prevent publication of its cover prior to it going on sale” Thursday in Britain.
On Wednesday, Pitt and Jolie made their first public appearance since the birth of their daughter, thanking Namibia for the privacy and peace they enjoyed.
“We have been able to have a very special, peaceful time for our family here, exploring your country and more importantly helping with the delivery of our daughter Shiloh,” Pitt told a news conference for local journalists at a hotel in the coastal town of Swakopmund. “So for that we are eternally grateful.”
Jolie, 30, gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel at a private clinic in Walvis Bay. Delivered by Caesarean section, the baby weighed 7 pounds and was said to be in good health.
Pitt, 42, and Jolie retreated to the southwest African country with their children for government-assisted privacy in the weeks leading up to the birth. They plan to leave in the coming days.
Jolie has two adopted children: 16-month-old Zahara, from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, from Cambodia. Both had their surnames legally changed to Jolie-Pitt after Pitt announced his intention to adopt the children as well.

Meat Loaf claims ‘Bat Out of Hell’ rights
LOS ANGELES – Someone else might have written the “Bat Out of Hell” song, but Meat Loaf claims he should be the only one to use the phrase in connection with music.
In a federal lawsuit dated May 26, the rocker, whose name is listed in the action as Michael Aday, said the expression had been publicly associated with him since the 1977 release of his “Bat Out of Hell” album.
The lawsuit claims defendant Jim Steinman, who wrote the original song of the same name, wrongly claims ownership of the phrase.
The album and its 1993 follow-up, “Bat Out of Hell II,” sold 48 million copies worldwide, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks damages of more than $50 million.
Steinman and co-defendant David Sonenberg, listed in the action as having been Meat Loaf’s manager, have been trying to disrupt the October release of the third “Bat Out of Hell” album by telling the singer’s distributors that Aday had no right to use the phrase, according to the lawsuit.
“This contention is blackmail and a holdup,” said the complaint, which claimed Steinman and Sonenberg have infringed Aday’s trademark rights in the phrase and are interfering with distribution contracts.
Steinman wrote and produced the second album, and would have produced the third, but he and Aday had a falling out, according the lawsuit.
Attempts to reach Steinman and Sonenberg for comment after business hours Monday were unsuccessful.

Record labels sue XM over portable device
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The recording industry on Tuesday sued XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., alleging its Inno device that can store music infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes.
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, comprising major labels such as Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group Plc and Sony BMG, said the suit was filed on Tuesday in New York federal court.
The suit accuses XM Satellite of “massive wholesale infringement,” and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.
“…Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs’ sound recordings,” the lawsuit says referring to the hand held “Inno” device.
The suit says that XM has touted its service’s advantages over the iPod and cites XM’s advertising literature that says “It’s not a Pod. It’s the mothership.”
XM said the Inno, which is manufactured by Pioneer Corp., are legal devices that allow consumers to listen to and record radio just as the law has allowed for decades.
While the labels are asserting the device has transformed radio broadcasts into a download service, XM said the device does not allow consumers to transfer recorded content. XM also said that content recorded from radio broadcasts like XM’s is not on demand, in contrast to the content people buy from online music stores like Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes service.
XM said it will vigorously defend this lawsuit on behalf of consumers and also called the lawsuit a bargaining tactic.
The company’s shares, which rose 4 percent to close at $17.63 on Nasdaq, were down 1.3 percent at $17.40 in after hours trading.
The labels are currently in talks with XM and its rival Sirius Satellite Radio, to renegotiate digital royalty contracts for broadcasts.
XM and the labels had also been in talks about the licensing of content for the digital portable player, but failed to reach agreement, according to sources familiar with the matter. The labels had pressed for licenses similar to those required for services like iTunes, the sources said.
Sirius earlier this spring came to an agreement with music labels over the ability to save songs to its S50 portable satellite receivers that double as MP3 players.
“XM Radio is the largest single payer of digital music broadcast royalties, and royalties paid by XM go to the music industry and benefit artists directly,” the satellite radio company said.
“The music labels are trying to stifle innovation, limit consumer choice and roll back consumers’ rights to record content for their personal use,” XM added.
“It’s a question of economic impact. Will these devices substitute for the purchase of a record? Everything is changing and the industry is petrified,” said Jay Cooper, an entertainment lawyer.

Apple Computer wins trademark dispute vs Beatles
LONDON (Reuters) – Apple Computer has won its trademark dispute with the Beatles, part of a long and winding road of legal battles which may lead the band’s famous songs to the door of Apple’s market-leading iTunes Music Store.
In the case decided on Monday, Apple Corps — which represents the band’s interests and has a green Granny Smith trademark — had argued that the Apple Computer had violated the companies’ former trademark settlement by using its logo to sell music.
Apple Computer, which has sold millions of iPods and more than a billion song downloads, held that iTunes was primarily a data transmission service and was permitted by the agreement.
“I find no breach of the trademark agreement has been demonstrated,” Justice Edward Mann said in his judgment, issued in London’s High Court. “The action therefore fails.”
Apple Corps had battled Apple Computer over its own stylized fruit logo twice before and the latest case related to an out-of-court settlement in 1991.
The ruling, which Apple Corps said it will appeal, means that Apple Computer will be able to continue using its fruit logo on the iTunes Music Store and in ads for the service.
Apple shares climbed about 1 percent to $72.59 on the Nasdaq exchange by 1354 GMT (9:54 EDT).
CAN’T BUY ME BEATLES…ONLINE
The Beatles are high-profile holdouts from Internet music services such as iTunes, but it emerged during the trial that Apple Corps is preparing the band’s catalog to be sold online for the first time, according to a submission by Neil Aspinall, managing director of Apple Corps and a former Beatles road manager.
“We are glad to put this disagreement behind us,” Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said. “We have always loved the Beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the iTunes Music Store.”
A spokeswoman for Apple Corps said that no decision had been made on when the Beatles’ songs would be available to purchase online.
Apple Corps — owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison — agreed to a 1991 out-of-court settlement, which included a $26 million payment by Apple Computer and set out areas in which each party would have exclusive use of their respective logos.
The Beatles’ company argued that Apple Computer’s move into the music business violated that deal, but Justice Mann ruled that no breaches had occurred.
“I think the use of the apple logo is a fair and reasonable use of the mark in connection with the service,” Mann said, referring to the Apple Computer logo within the iTunes Music Store.
The trial in the High Court’s usually staid courtrooms was marked by the incongruous playing of the disco hit “Le Freak” by the Apple Corps legal team, who were demonstrating the iTunes software for the judge.

‘Lost’ star chooses jail over service
HONOLULU (AP) – Lost actress Michelle Rodriguez pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of driving under the influence, choosing to pay a $500 fine and spend five days in jail, rather than do 240 hours of community service.
Rodriguez, who portrays police officer Ana Lucia, and cast member Cynthia Watros were both charged with drunken driving after they were pulled over Dec. 1 in separate cars within 15 minutes of each other. On Tuesday, a judge gave Rodriguez the option of jail time or community service. She surrendered to authorities at Kaneohe District Court later in the day.
Choosing jail over community service was a “personal choice,” said her lawyer, Steve Barta.
“I would suspect that because she has a hard time even going out for a meal without being intruded upon for an autograph or photograph, it’s really difficult for her to do community service,” he said.
Watros, who plays Libby on the ABC castaway drama, pleaded guilty to drunken driving in January and was fined $312, ordered to have an alcohol assessment and 14 hours of counselling. She also had her licence suspended for 90 days.
Both Rodriguez and Watros were spotted weaving on a road in Kailua, on the island Oahu, where Lost is filmed. Both failed field sobriety tests.
Rodriguez recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of .08. Watros had a blood-alcohol level of 0.10.
Soon after, Rodriguez spent two weeks in a rehab clinic, her lawyer said.
“She did recognize there was an issue to be dealt with. She on her own took care of it,” he said.
In 2004, Rodriguez pleaded no-contest in Los Angeles to three traffic violations, including drunken driving. She completed a three-month alcohol program and is serving a three-year probation term.

It’s Apple Vs. Apple in British Court
LONDON – Two legendary companies in the music industry are to meet Wednesday in a London courtroom to fight it out over what might be the world’s most recognizable logo: A simple piece of fruit.
Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles’ record company and guardian of the band’s musical heritage and business interests, is suing Apple Computer Inc., claiming the company violated a 1991 agreement by entering the music business with its iTunes online music store.
The case will be heard by Judge Martin Mann, who said during pretrial hearings that he was the owner of an iPod digital music player, which is used with the iTunes music store.
At issue is a 1991 pact that ended a long-running trademark fight between the two Apples in which each agreed not to tread on the other’s toes by entering into a “field of use” agreement over the trademark.
Apple Computer said in a statement that “unfortunately, Apple and Apple Corps now have differing interpretations of this agreement and will need to ask a court to resolve this dispute.”
Apple Corps ó founded in 1968 and owned by surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the widow of John Lennon and the estate of George Harrison ó is seeking both an injunction to enforce the 1991 agreement and monetary damages for the alleged contract breach.
The computer company’s logo is a cartoonish apple with a neat bite out of the side; the record company is represented by a perfect, shiny green Granny Smith apple.
Apple Computer had asked to have the case heard in California, where it is based, but Mann rejected that application in 2004 and ordered the case be heard at the stately Royal Courts of Justice in central London.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer was formed in 1976, when two college dropouts ó Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ó filed partnership papers on April Fools’ Day. Their goal was to build and sell personal computers, and their first product was a build-it-yourself computer kit. In 1984, the Apple Macintosh was introduced. Their ubiquitous iPods first came out in October 2001.
The iTunes music store first opened for business in the United States in April 2003; it is now available across Europe, in Australia, Japan, and Canada. About 3 million songs are downloaded every day from the service. In the United States, a song costs 99 cents; in the U.K, they fetch 79 pence ($1.38). Not available on the service are Beatles’ songs, which haven’t been licensed for downloading.

Judge Halts Notorious B.I.G. Album Sales
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A judge halted sales of Notorious B.I.G.’s breakthrough 1994 album “Ready to Die” after a jury decided the title song used part of an Ohio Players tune without permission.
The jury Friday awarded $4.2 million in punitive and direct damages to the two music companies that own rights to Ohio Players recordings.
The sales ban imposed by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell affects the album and the title song in any form, including Internet downloads and radio play.
It was unclear when or how the ban would take effect. By Saturday evening, a search of BestBuy.com and Amazon.com showed “Ready to Die” was still available for purchase online.
The jury decided that Bad Boy Entertainment and executive producer Sean “Diddy” Combs illegally used a part of the Ohio Players’ 1992 song “Singing In The Morning.”
Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which owned the song rights, have filed hundreds of lawsuits over “sampling,” the practice of lifting parts of old music for new recordings. Most were settled out of court.
The companies get most of their income from song royalties by their artists, which include funk legend George Clinton, the Funkadelics and the Ohio Players.
“We’ve just been battling this for such a long time,” Armen Boladian, owner of Westbound and Bridgeport said. “So many have been settled because companies didn’t want anything to do with it, and we knew we were right.”
The defendants, Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy LLC, Justin Combs Publishing and Universal Records, plan to appeal. “We think (the verdict) is without merit,” defense lawyer Jay Bowen said.
The estate of Notorious B.I.G. was originally sued but was dropped later as a defendant. The artist, born Christopher Wallace, was 24 in 1997 when he was killed in a shooting that remains unsolved.
The rotund New York rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, was one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s. His albums “Ready To Die” and the posthumously released “Life After Death” together sold nearly 8 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

French Draft Law Threatens iPod’s Future
PARIS РApple Computer Inc. faces a serious challenge in France as lawmakers move to sever the umbilical cord between its iPod music player and iTunes online store ó threatening its lucrative hold on both markets.
Amendments to an online copyright bill, adopted early Friday, would give rivals access to the hitherto-exclusive file formats at the heart of Apple’s music business model as well as Sony Corp.’s Walkman players and Connect store.
Thanks to the massive success of the iPod models, which account for two out of every three music players sold worldwide, iTunes has become the global leader in online music sales. The iPod is currently designed not to play music from rival services.
According to the latest amendments, however, copy-protection technologies like Apple’s FairPlay format and Sony’s ATRAC3 must work with competing services and players. Companies that refuse to share all essential information with any rival that requests it would be ordered to do so by a judge, under threat of fines.
The draft law could force Apple to let French iPod users buy their music from download sites other than iTunes. Owners of other music players would also be allowed to buy songs from iTunes France.
“Without guaranteed interoperability, we run a major risk of captive client bases and an anti-competitive situation, with the consumer held hostage as a result,” read the explanatory note accompanying one of the key amendments.
Lawmakers in the lower house voted to approve the amended text early Friday and will hold a further formal vote on Tuesday before sending the bill to the Senate for its final reading.
Although the draft law would also apply to Sony, “the implication is most serious for Apple” because of the phenomenal market penetration of the iPod and iTunes, said Roger Kay of U.S.-based research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment on the law or say whether it could force the company to withdraw the iPod or iTunes from the French market. Sony also refused to comment.
Although iTunes was initially driven by iPod sales, some analysts say the two offerings now reinforce each other. Apple’s large online music catalog, the result of its superior bargaining power, also boosts the iPod’s appeal. Breaking the exclusive link removes both advantages.
Critics of the draft law say legislators have no business forcing Apple to share its proprietary format, arguing that most customers know about its limitations when they choose to buy an iPod. But consumer groups argue that the only way to give customers real choice is to end the restrictions.
“It’s an essential condition for consumers and for the market itself,” said Julien Dourgnon, a spokesman for UFC-Que Choisir, France’s main consumer organization.
UFC has already filed a lawsuit in French courts, attacking Apple’s exclusive music format as a form of anticompetitive behavior.
“It’s only by resisting interoperability that Apple is able to keep this dominant position,” Dourgnon said. “Once there’s interoperability, it’s over.”
If the draft law goes through in its current form, experts say, Apple could have three broad courses of action from which to choose.
The company could look for technical solutions to comply with the new law in France while maintaining its format exclusivity elsewhere. Sales from iTunes sites are already restricted to local markets using credit card details. But preventing newly interoperable iPods from being used outside the “walled garden” would be much harder √≥ although shipping them with French-only software could help.
Alternatively, Apple could follow the example set by Microsoft Corp. in its standoff with EU antitrust authorities: Drag its feet over compliance and wait to be sued. Court proceedings are long, damages relatively light and class actions impossible in France. Apple might calculate that its iPod and iTunes profits dwarf any potential penalties.
Finally, Apple could be forced to withdraw from Europe’s third-largest music download market √≥ or threaten to do so while seeking a change in the law.
“They may have to bluff initially by pulling product off the market and making everybody uncomfortable,” Endpoint’s Kay said.
But Apple’s transformation into a major force in digital entertainment may ultimately lead to antitrust challenges elsewhere, including the United States, Kay said.
In that case, the French move will turn out to have been just the start of something bigger, he added. “Creating an open version of the iPod ecosystem is what everybody in the world except Apple would like.”

“X-Files” Creator Sues Fox
The cash is out there, and Chris Carter wants to find it.
The X-Files mastermind’s latest conspiracy theory, put forth in a recent lawsuit, accuses 20th Century Fox Television of screwing him out of millions of dollars in residuals related to the show’s profitable syndication agreement, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The suit, filed in December in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims Fox’s TV production arm breached a 1998 contract with Carter–signed when the company’s corporate sibling, Fox Broadcasting, brought back The X-Files for a sixth and seventh season–because the financial terms turned out to be “too favorable” to the creator at the expense of the studio.
Carter says his deal called for him to be paid a “profit guarantee” when the studio licensed reruns of the paranormal drama to a domestic cable network. However, the suit accuses 20th Century TV of cutting a sweetheart deal with in-house cable net FX. The bargain-bin price, Carter says, effectively cheated him out of a substantial windfall if The X-Files had been put up for bid on the open market.
Carter says when he was negotiating for a ninth season of The X-Files, he pushed the studio to scrap its licensing deal with FX and go after a bigger payday with another network.
Further, Carter claims he was supposed to be paid a “cable advance” that could have totaled $300,000 per episode.
Carter says the studio approached him in 2001 and requested he voluntarily agree to a lower advance because, as he writes in his complaint, it “would result, in their view, in too large a benefit to plaintiff, and too small a benefit to Fox Television.” He declined.
Ultimately, 20th Century TV ended its agreement with FX and struck a subsequent syndication deal with USA Network and TNT. Carter says he was again shortchanged.
Neither Carter’s lawyer, Larry Stein, nor Fox reps returned phone calls seeking comment.
Not so coincidentally, Stein represented X-Files star David Duchovny in a similar suit the actor brought against Fox, claiming he was cheated out of $25 million when the reruns were sold to–you guessed it–FX and other Fox outlets. Duchovny also accused Carter of conspiring to aid Fox in exchange for millions of dollars in “hush” money and a new TV development deal. The suit was eventually settled out of court for nearly $20 million.
The X-Files ended its run in 2002 after nine seasons. There’s been no word whether Carter will ever move forward with his long-rumored sequel to 1998’s X-Files movie. The current lawsuit might be a ploy to jumpstart a movie deal–or just the final nail in the franchise’s coffin.