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Universal Music Wins Royalty Dispute With Eminem Producers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 6, 2009 - 12:39pm.
Los Angeles - Universal Music Group has emerged the winner of a lawsuit brought by producers of hip-hop artist Eminem's early recordings, over the amount of royalties owed from sales of digital song downloads and ringtones, Bloomberg reported. The case hinged on whether digitally distributing a song should be considered a "license" of the music to a third party like the iTunes Store, or treated in the same way as CDs and other media -- as physically distributed product.

A jury denied FBT Productions' claim of $1.47 million in damages for underpaid royalties, but did award the company $159,000 on a claim that Universal had misallocated royalty payments.

Licensing typically nets a higher royalty for the artist, in this case 50%, as opposed to the 40% that FBT Productions has been paid.

"It's a big disappointment," FBT's Joel Martin told Bloomberg, adding that the company is likely to appeal the verdict.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/damar (Bloomberg)

http://snipurl.com/damfn (DMW previous coverage)

Published in DMW Daily, March 6, 2009
tags: Mobile | Law | Lawsuits | Music | Ringtones | Universal Music | Copyright | Royalties | Eminem | FBT Productions |



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